Be Careful What You Wish For
by GrapplingHook
Summary: What happens when summer is over and it's time for the Pines twins to leave Gravity Falls? A shadow lurks in the darkness and is watching their every move and is listening to their every request. Things go awry for the twins... can they fix things before it's too late? (Final Chapter Posted)
1. Shadows Lurking

_**I'm back Ladies and Gents! (Not that I ever left). This is my first try at a stand-alone story. I'll let y'all get to it. Enjoy! - GrapplingHook!**_

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Dipper and Mabel Pines walked alone in the magical woods by the Mystery Shack. The warm air told the kids that summer was almost over, but the cool breeze told them that they still had awhile before they went back to California. The reality was that this was their last weekend in Gravity Falls. They had fought so many battles and come so far. They didn't want to leave. Dipper hadn't gotten anywhere with Wendy and had the feeling that nothing would happen between them, at least for this summer. Hopefully, he would grow the few inches he needed to over the course of the school year, and then maybe Wendy would look at him differently. Mabel occasionally wrote to Mermando, but she knew a long distance relationship would never work and other than that she had no other love interests.

Dipper placed his foot on a log as he re-tied his shoe. "Why does summer have to end Mabel? It feels like we just got to Gravity Falls yesterday."

"I don't know, but it's making me depressed just thinking about going back home." Mabel said as she stopped and waited for her brother to finish tying his shoe.

"I can't believe that we didn't want to come here at first. I was so caught up in my video games..." Dipper said as he hopped over the log and joined Mabel in stride.

"At least we can both agree that this summer has been a lifetime of experience." Mabel said smiling. They were almost at their favorite spot in the woods. Just between where the gnomes lived and where the fairies called home. It was a quaint little clearing, a log in the middle where Dipper and Mabel would sit, a small stream ran by the log and the trees of the forest covered the clearing with plenty of shade, while still allowing the children to see the sky.

"It certainly was worth it." Dipper said smiling back to his sister. The two of them passed through a bush and reached their spot. It wasn't a particularly sunny day, but the sun was shining in a corner of the clearing they had deemed _Pine Valley_. Dipper and Mabel went over to the log and sat down, Dipper brushing off a small spider that had crawled onto the log next to him. The stream soothed the twins as the calm dripping of water made all the noise they needed to hear. They both yawned in unison and looked at each other.

"Do you think mom and dad will let us come back next summer?" Dipper asked his sister. He was mostly looking for a positive response than the truth. He really wasn't sure if his parents would let them come back to Gravity Falls. His chances would probably increase if he did well in school this year, but that wasn't so much of a problem for him than it would be for Mabel.

"I'm sure they would... I mean, why wouldn't they?" She paused and thought. "Maybe if we show them what we learned this summer, they would see that we're more responsible." She began chopping at the air with her hands. "Like how we defeated the gnomes and saved the shack on numerous occasions."

"They'd think we're crazy." Dipper said looking down at the stream as a brown leaf floated down it.

"I think you're just being a worry-wart." Mabel said playfully punched Dipper in the arm. Dipper blushed and rubbed his arm.

"You're right. I tend to do that a lot, don't I?" Dipper said as he looked back down at the rushing stream in front him. The water seemed to flow over the rocks like it wasn't even an obstacle in its way. Dipper wished he could do that about summer ending. Just flow over it and right into school and then right back to next summer.

"Yeah, you do." Mabel said, somewhat faintly as she looked up at the branch covered sky above.

"To think that we're going to be teens next year too. How crazy is that?" Dipper said, still looking down at the stream. He scratched his elbow and yawned as he awaited a response from Mabel.

"I guess it's good. I mean, there's nothing really that special about turning thirteen, other than being able to call yourself a teenager." Mabel said as she looked over at Dipper. The topic of teenagers reminded Mabel of Wendy. She spoke in a more serious and caring tone. "How are things going with Wendy? You haven't been talking about her much as of late." Mabel knew that she was entering sensitive territory with Dipper and was risking a dam burst behind Dipper's eyes any second now.

Surprisingly, Dipper didn't tear up. He just looked lower at the ground and spoke as if someone had just died. "I don't think anything is going to happen this summer... I'm not even sure..." He paused, the words hurt coming up and out of his throat. "... that she likes me." He turned away from Mabel.

Mabel scooted closer to her brother and put an arm around his shoulder. She brought him close to her, comforting him as she rubbed his back and patted him. "Don't fret... There's always next summer." She smiled. "At least she isn't dating Robbie."

Dipper scoffed, "Thank god." He looked over at Mabel. "Be honest with me. Do you really think I have a shot with her?" Dipper's eyes were twinkling. Mabel wasn't sure if this was due to tears about to pour out, or the reflection of the stream in his eyes.

Mabel answered, without hesitation. "Without a shadow of a doubt. Does that mean it will be this summer? Not necessarily. But I do think you have a good chance in the future." She looked at Dipper, hoping that he wouldn't cry at her honest answer. Instead, she got the reaction she was hoping for. A smile lit up Dipper's round face as he hugged Mabel.

The two let go of each other and continued to sit in the peaceful serenity of their own little spot in the forest. Well, at least what they thought was peaceful. A dark shadow lurked beyond the brush behind the twins. Before the twins knew it, the sky had grown dark and it was nearly nine at night. "We should probably get back to the Shack." Dipper said as he slowly got up from the log. His rear was sore, but he stretched and ignored the pain as best he could, he had suffered worse.

Mabel, who was minutes away from falling asleep, yawned as she stood up, stretching as her brother had done so moments ago. They both looked up at the small clearing in the trees and looked at the sky. The clouds had dissipated over the last few hours and now a full moon shined bright in the night sky, with the stars packed around it. The two began their trek back to the Mystery Shack, completely oblivious to the silent shadow that was watching them in the distance and following them with every step. They made it to the edge of the forest, the Mystery Shack's lights in sight when Dipper stuck his arm out in front of Mabel, cautioning her to stop.

"What was..." Mabel was cut off by Dipper's hand being placed on her mouth. Dipper placed his other hand and put a finger in front of his mouth, slightly puckering his lips, motioning for them to be quiet. He gently put his hand away from Mabel's mouth as they slowly turned around. They stared at the blackness before them as a small squirrel scurried across their path and jumped into a bush.

"Ha! You were scared of a squirrel!" Mabel teased Dipper as her metallic smile gaped open.

"I thought..." There was no use in trying to explain, so Dipper exhaled as they made their way to the front of the shack, Mabel teasing him constantly along the way.

The twins opened the door to the Mystery Shack gift shop. The lights were off. Dipper shut the door behind them and turned the lights on. Nearly simultaneously as the lights flickered on, Grenda, Candy, Soos, Grunkle Stan, and Wendy jumped out in unison from various places as they yelled, "Surprise!" Dipper, still startled from the woods, jumped backwards with his eyes wide open and let out a somewhat high pitched scream. Mabel just stood there giggling and smiling. Her friends ran up to Mabel and gave her a hug together.

Grunkle Stan walked up to the twins, Dipper now smiling at the pleasant surprise they had come home to. He held out a cake that had Dipper and Mabel's faces on it, a corner piece of the white frosted cake was missing. "We figured you two could use a little going away party." Stan looked down at the cake and saw that the corner piece was missing. "Okay, who ate the cake already?"

Soos quickly put the piece that was in his hands behind his back. With frosting on his mouth he looked at Stan. "I swear it wasn't me, dude."

Stan stared at Soos with squinted eyes. "We all know it was you Soos." He began laughing as everyone else joined in.

Soos shrugged as he pulled the piece out from behind him and continued chomping on it. Stan looked back at the twins. "Since tomorrow's your last day, we thought it'd be nice to do this for you two. Also..." He looked at Mabel. "Soos and I have decided that we can look after Waddles for you, until the next time you come back the Shack." Mabel, who had finished her hug with her friends ran up and hugged Grunkle Stan. Dipper smiled as he too went up and hugged Stan. The seven of them proceeded to the kitchen to eat the cake. The dark shadow peered through a window before quickly disappearing as Wendy came back into the gift shop to grab her magazine that she was reading before Dipper and Mabel arrived. Wendy thought she saw something move out of the corner of her eye as she bent down to reach for her magazine, but as she quickly looked at the window, nothing was there. Wendy shrugged and went back into the kitchen to continue the celebration.

The seven of them reminisced on the events that had happened the past summer. At least the ones that didn't involve monster hunting. Before they knew it, the clock struck midnight.

"Wow! It's midnight already?" Grenda asked Candy in her deep voice.

"Yes, I am afraid that it is. We need to get back home." Candy responded with her accented voice.

Mabel got up from the table. "I'll walk you guys out." So Mabel lead her two friends to the Mystery Shack gift shop. Leaving Soos, Wendy, Stan and Dipper in the kitchen. Dipper looked around at the hanging streamers, the different colored balloons sitting on the ground and the make shift sign that said _We'll miss you! _"Who's idea was all this?" Dipper said as he looked back at Grunkle Stan.

"As much as I'd love to take all the credit... It was Wendy and Soos' idea." Stan said looking at the two Shack employees. "And a good one it was." Stan got up and left the three of them as he went into the living room to turn on the television.

Soos stood up as well and excused himself to the bathroom; leaving Wendy and Dipper alone. Soos walked over to Stan and sat down next to the sofa on the floor.

"Let me ask you somethin' Soos." Grunkle Stan said, his tone of voice was calm and tiring. He was clearly exhausted and was up well past his bed time. "Does Dipper like the girl?"

Soos knew the answer to the question, but wasn't sure that Dipper would want the information revealed to his Great Uncle Stan. "I think so, but I'm not entirely sure. Why do ask dude?" Soos took off his hat and set it on his lap.

"I've noticed that he's a lot more..." Stan paused for a second, trying to come up with the most accurate word possible to describe Dipper's behavior when Wendy was around. "...Awkward." He said as he shut off the television and looked directly at Soos. "Do you think I should have a heart to heart talk with the kid before he leaves?"

Soos stood up and put his hat back on his head. "I think that's an excellent idea Mr. Pines." Soos yawned. "I think I'm going to bed now." Soos walked to the entryway and turned around as Stan called to him.

"Goodnight Soos..." Grunkle Stan said as he leaned back in his couch. Soos walked to his room where he went to sleep for the rest of the night.

Dipper looked at Wendy. "So this was your idea?" He said as he laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Wendy, who had rested her shoes on the table after Stan left the room, looked up from her magazine and leaned forward a little as she closed it shut. She let out a simple. "Yep."

Dipper responded quickly, "It was really nice of you and I appreciate it." He said. The nervousness clearly came out with the shakiness of his voice.

"Eh, It was nothing." Wendy said. "You and Mabel made my summer a lot more enjoyable than it could have been. It was the least I could do." She smiled towards Dipper. That smile, was worth a million dollars to him. He was certainly glad to be friends with Wendy, and as much as he wanted to call Wendy his own, he didn't want to ruin the friendship he had worked hard to build. Wendy brought her legs down from the table and stood up. She put the magazine down on the table and turned to Dipper. "I should probably head home before my dad freaks..." She paused. "...I have a question to ask."

Dipper became twenty times more attentive and looked at Wendy, making direct eye contact, almost too direct. "Yeah?"

"I know Stan has time planned for you to spend with him during the day..." She paused again. Dipper nodded to show that he was following along. "Would you want to chill for your last few hours in Gravity Falls?"

Dipper nearly freaked out. The fact that Wendy wanted to spend time with him really shocked him and made him extremely excited. Wearing a dorky smile Dipper cheerfully said "Yeah!" he coughed. "I mean... nothing would make me happier."

"Cool." Wendy said as she headed for the exit, popping a balloon as she stepped on it. She closed her eyes and grimaced. "Oops." She looked down at the broken pink balloon. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow." And with that Wendy made her way to the door of the Mystery Shack where Mabel was waving goodbye to her friends. "See ya Mabel." Wendy said as she passed her. But she suddenly stopped when she felt a tight squeeze around her waist and looked down to see Mabel hugging her. She returned the sign of affection and patted Mabel on the head before leaving without saying a word.

Mabel shut the door, locking it behind her and went to the living room to find Grunkle Stan asleep. She put a blanket over her sleeping relative and shut off the light in the living room as Stan started to snore like a bear. She made her way upstairs, where she found Dipper sitting up in his bed, clicking his pen and writing in the journal. Mabel shut the door, changed into her pajamas and hopped into her bed. She turned to Dipper, who was writing in a page about goblins. "I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep at all this weekend." She said while rubbing her eyes.

"You and I both." Dipper said smiling. "Wendy wants to chill later tomorrow." Dipper put air quotes around the word chill.

"Ooooh." Mabel said as she returned a smile to her brother. "What do you think is going to happen?"

Dipper thought for a second before closing the journal and placing it under his pillow. "I don't know, but I'm going to be up all night thinking about it."

The late August moonlight shined through the twins slightly opened triangle shaped window as a warm breeze drafted into the room. Mabel had fallen asleep quickly as Dipper remained wide awake, staring at the ceiling thinking about the next day, their last in Gravity Falls. He couldn't get his mind off Wendy, off the adventures he had been on with Mabel, how he stopped Gideon and saved the town. He wished that there was some way to keep this summer alive, just for a few more weeks. But school was on the horizon. He looked over at Waddles who was laying down on Mabel's bed. He remembered that summer afternoon at the Mystery Shack fair. Where he had sacrificed his assured happiness with Wendy for Mabel's happiness with Waddles. Maybe this summer could have ended differently. There were so many occasions where they could have died or at the very least vanished. They made friends along the way and Dipper didn't want to give that up. Mabel had gotten her first kiss, while Dipper sat in the dust, still waiting for his moment to shine. Would tomorrow be the day? Would it be a bitter-sweet ending to his summer? Or just another plain old day? Dipper's mind was racing with questions. But his mind eventually tired out, as he fell asleep about an hour later with the black shadow watching through the open window.

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_**I hope you enjoyed this first chapter, things will certainly start coming into play in chapter 2. Please leave a review if you liked it/didn't like and make sure to fave/follow! Thanks! -GrapplingHook!**_


	2. A Different Side

Dipper rolled around in his sleep as visions of Mabel being attacked by a gremoblin were vividly projected in his mind. He clawed at his sheets before turning and falling out of bed with a loud smack as he hit the ground. Dipper awoke to find himself lying on the ground, his head pounding. He rubbed his head as he sat up. Dipper looked over at his sister, she was sleeping like a rock. Little did Dipper know that she was having the exact same dream. Except in her dream Dipper was the one being attacked by the gremoblin, but she was fending it off with a flamethrower. Dipper looked at the window behind him, the sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon as light just started to enter the room. Dipper climbed back into bed and pulled his covers over himself, so that he couldn't see anything but darkness around him.

It seemed like only five minutes had passed before Dipper was unexpectedly woken up by his sister. She was very frantic and talking fast. "Dipper!" He rolled over so that his back was facing his sister. However, that provided him shielding for all of two seconds because Mabel hopped onto Dipper's bed and began violently shaking him. "Dipper, wake up!"

Dipper threw his covers off his body and looked at his twin sister. "What is it?" Dipper said annoyed and half asleep.

Mabel threw open the window in their room, a blast of cold air it Dipper right in the face. He shivered as he pulled his covers around him to stay warm. Mabel motioned for him to come to the window as she gazed out at the morning wide-eyed. "Look." She said, pointing out the window.

Dipper slowly got out of bed and hopped up to where his sister was standing and peered out the window. Dipper couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing as he had to rub them to make sure that he was truly awake. He was.

Outside, clouds lined most of the sky, but a yellow-orange sun still managed to peak its way through to light up the morning. This, was normal. The snow that was falling from the clouds, was not. Dipper and Mabel had never seen snow their entire life, other than on television or in a movie. They had never experienced that refreshing taste of a snowflake landing on your tongue, or the feeling of joy after you pelt someone with a packed snowball. They had never made the perfect snow angel or felt the rush of cold wind in their face as you go sledding down the largest hill in town.

Dipper's eyes got as wide as Mabel's as they stared out into the falling powder that was sticking to the ground. It must have been snowing when Dipper fell out of bed because there was a solid five inches on the ground. "Is that snow?" Dipper said turning to his sister. But Mabel was long gone. She had run out of the room and down the stairs to the gift shop. Dipper smiling, followed her down the stairs. He went up next to her as she stood there with the door open, letting the cold air into the shack. She took a step out cautiously before jumping face first into the snow.

"I thought it was only supposed to snow in the winter? Not late August..." Dipper said to himself.

Grunkle Stan, who was wearing just a muscle shirt and his boxers came into the Mystery Shack gift shop. He was still half asleep, but was somewhat awake thanks to Mabel's joyous screaming. "What's going on here?" Dipper moved out of the doorway so Grunkle Stan could see the falling snow outside.

"Is that... snow? In August?" Grunkle Stan asked, scratching his stomach. Dipper nodded. Annoyed, he said. "Well... I'm going back to bed." Stan turned around and made his way back to his room. Dipper shrugged and went outside, closing the door behind him. The air was cold, the only thing Dipper could really compare it to was the refrigerated section at the grocery store.

Mabel got up and brought some snow that had stuck to her face with her. She had attempted to make a snow angel, but it turned out more like a round blob with a head. "Look Dipper, I made a snow Angel!" She said jumping with joy as the snow fell off her face and clothes. She turned around to look at her marvelous creation. "Close enough." She said as she shrugged.

Dipper stepped out into the snow, the white powder crunched under his slippers as he reached up and let a snowflake fall on his hand. He brought the flake towards his eyes and could distinctly make out the pattern of bends, corners and straight lines that made the flake so unique. The snow quickly melted before another fell on the palm of his hand. Dipper reached down in the snow, quickly grabbing a fist-full and packing it together in his hand. He turned around and threw it at Mabel, hitting her in the stomach. "Snowball fight!" He said as he started to laugh.

Mabel ran and tackled Dipper to the ground causing some snow to go down his shirt. Dipper's reflexes caused him to arch his back since the cold snow was touching his skin. The two rolled around in the snow throwing the frozen precipitation at each other's faces. They laughed together as they continued horsing around in the snow.

They both looked up as they saw some type of motorized vehicle heading towards them. Dipper could make out flowing red hair from underneath the helmet of a female driver. A green snowmobile turned in front of the twins, spraying snow into their faces. The motor stopped revving as the driver got up and took her helmet off. It was Wendy. She ran up to the twins excited, Dipper had never seen Wendy this excited since... ever. Then again, now as good as any time to show some sort of emotion.

"I can't believe it's snowing!" She yelled to them. Dipper and Mabel stood up. "In the middle of summer too!" Wendy hugged the twins, lifting them up momentarily before putting them down.

"You're awfully excited." Dipper said as he fixed his hat.

Mabel ran up to Wendy's snowmobile and rubbed her hands across it. "It's so shiny." She said with sparkling eyes as she put her cheek up against the cold metal.

"Hey, it's not often that snow falls during the summer..." Wendy paused. "You're not doing anything with Stan right now are you?" Wendy put a clear emphasis on Stan, as if it was something she had dreaded for a long time.

"No, he just went to bed." Dipper said as they walked towards the snowmobile together.

"Cool. Would you want to go for a ride?" Wendy said as she pulled out another helmet. "I have an extra helmet." She said as she waved it around in her hand.

Mabel began jumping up and down, raising her hand. "Pick Mabel! Pick Mabel!" She squealed.

Wendy looked at Mabel, she had almost forgotten about her. "I'll tell ya what. Let Dipper take this first turn, then I'll come back and you and I can go together. Have some one on one girl bonding time." Mabel looked a little sad that she wouldn't be able to experience the thrill of a snowmobile before Dipper, but it would have to suffice.

Wendy hopped onto the snowmobile and put her helmet on. Dipper climbed on behind her and put his helmet on, tossing his hat to his sister. Wendy turned behind to Dipper as the snowmobile started up. "Hold on tight." Dipper, unsure of where to put his hands, placed them on top of Wendy's shoulder. Wendy laughed as she grabbed his hands and wrapped them around her waist. "Down here, Unless you want both of us to fall off."

Dipper awkwardly laughed back. "Oh." He squeaked out. Wendy throttled the engine as the snowmobile accelerated past the shack and onto a path in the woods where Wendy had come from. The snow flew around them as the snowmobile made its tracks; Wendy's hair and scarf occasionally hitting Dipper in the face.

The cold wind was now effecting Dipper a lot, his long sleeve shirt and polyester material pants would only protect him from the freezing cold for so long. Dipper's teeth began to chatter and he began to shiver a little from the cold. Wendy could feel his hands shaking from the cold and realized that Dipper was pretty exposed. She stopped the snowmobile, took off her jacket and scarf and gave it Dipper. "Here, I'll get you back to the shack quickly." She said as she put the articles of clothing on Dipper. Dipper muttered thanks as Wendy turned the snowmobile around and raced back towards the shack.

Dipper now held onto a maroon colored sweater that Wendy was wearing as he slowly felt some warmth coming back to his body. He felt bad that he had to do this to Wendy and really wished the situation was reversed. It had stopped snowing and now the sun was clearly shining in the sky. The snow was beginning to melt as Wendy sped up. "This thing better not get stuck in the grass." She said, now partially standing up as she sped the vehicle up.

Mabel, who was sitting in the snow waiting for the two of them to get back, got up and realized that the snow had turned to water, and that the melting snow was dripping from the roof of the shack. Mabel sighed and went inside the shack, bummed that she wouldn't be able ride on the snowmobile at all. As Mabel went upstairs to her room to change into the clothes that she would wear during the day, Grunkle Stan peered out of the vending machine in the gift shop, closing it behind him. "Stupid machine." He said as he slapped the glass. "Always screwing something up." He shook his head and made his way towards the kitchen.

With the snow melting and patches of grass in front of them, Wendy pulled out of the woods and near a main road that was close to the shack. She shut the snowmobile off and turned to Dipper as she took her helmet off. "We're going to have to walk back. I can't drive through this patchy stuff."

As Dipper took his helmet off, Soos drove by with his truck. He pulled off to the side of the road. Dipper and Wendy ran up tot he passenger side of the truck. "Yo dudes." He said as he took a bite out of a doughnut. "It was snowing earlier. Isn't that ridiculous?"

Wendy cut to the chase. "Yeah. Hey Soos, do you think you could give Dipper and I a lift back to the shack... along with my snowmobile?"

Soos looked his review mirror. "Of course dude. Hop in!" He said excitedly. Dipper hopped in the truck as Soos helped Wendy put the snowmobile in the bed of the truck. Wendy and Soos both entered the truck forcing Dipper to be in the middle.

Soos began to drive towards the shack as the three were silent in the car together. After some moments Wendy looked over to Soos. "Are you going with Stan and the twins?" She asked.

Soos pulled into the Mystery Shack's driveway. "No. It'll just be Stan, Dipper and Mabel." There was a hint of sadness in his voice. "I'll be keeping an eye out for the Shack while they're gone."

That is exactly what happened. Stan was waiting outside the shack with Mabel ready to leave. Dipper ran to them as Soos parked his truck, leaving him and Wendy behind. Stan drove the kids to the Gravity Falls lake, where the three of them went fishing; just as they had done before when Dipper and Mabel went to catch the gobblewonker. After fishing, Stan took the kids to the Diner for one last meal. He even allowed the twins to get dessert as the sun set beyond the window of their booth.

The twins finished up their lemon meringue pie and the three Pines left the Diner and headed back to the Mystery Shack. It was dark and the kids were almost in a food coma. They hadn't eaten this well the whole time they've been at Gravity Falls with their Great Uncle. "Thanks Grunkle Stan." Dipper said to him, keeping his gaze out of his direction and out of the rear window of the car.

"You two deserved it. Thanks for helping out at the Shack. If you two want to come back again next summer, then it's fine with me." Grunkle Stan said affectionately. It was very rare for Stan to show his love for the twins, but when he did, it was clear that he meant every word that came out of his mouth.

Mabel hopped up and down in her seat, excited about the offer to come back next summer. "Definitely!" Mabel screamed.

"Calm down kid, before you give me a heart attack." Grunkle Stan said before laughing.

Dipper turned to Mabel and smiled. They had a great last day here at Gravity Falls. Dipper had caught a decent sized fish, they ate well, Mabel bet Stan that he couldn't catch a fish in a minute, and she won. It was a nice relaxing day and Dipper was glad he didn't have to deal with any monsters whatsoever. He looked at the three journal that was tucked away in his vest. What was he going to do with the journal? Should he bring it home? Give it to Wendy or Stan? He would have to think about it.

Grunkle Stan pulled up next to the Mystery Shack, turning off the car's engine. Dipper and Mabel were about to get out before Stan told them to stop. Dipper's hand retracted from the door handle as Grunkle Stan pulled out two tickets from his pocket. He handed them to the twins without making eye contact. "These are your bus tickets for tomorrow. I won't be able to say goodbye to you..." He paused. "...I have important business to attend to. I will be there in the morning to say goodbye before Soos takes you to the bus stop." Dipper and Mabel took the tickets, upset that Stan wouldn't be there to wave goodbye to them.

They got out of the car somberly. With crickets chirping in the background the three walked through the blackened night and into the Shack. However, Dipper, who was bringing in the rear, was stopped by someone taller than him by the door. She got in front of the light made by the doorway, it was Wendy. "Didn't forget about me, did you?"

Dipper stuffed the ticket in his pocket and tried to quickly change the sad expression that was on his face. "No, of course not!" He said as he perked up.

"Cool." Wendy took out a blindfold. "Put this on."

Dipper grabbed it from her. "Why?" He asked, holding the black cloth out in his right hand.

"It's called a surprise for a reason." Wendy said, grinning her cute smile as she walked over to Dipper and put the blindfold around his eyes. She stood in front of him and held out three fingers. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Dipper shrugged and guessed. "Zero?"

Wendy's grin became wider. "Good." Wendy took Dipper by the shoulders and turned him around. She grabbed a knapsack that she had placed by the door of the gift shop and slung it over her shoulders as the contents jingled inside. She grabbed Dipper's hand and lead him towards the forest. Dipper's hand was smooth and warm to the touch as Wendy squeezed it and dragged him along.

Mabel could see the two heading towards the forest as she peered out the window of the gift shop. Before quickly turning around at the sound of Soos' voice. "Hey Hambone." He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb towards the living room. "Stan and I were wondering if you'd be up for one last game of Stanopoly?" Stanopoly was a game similar to monopoly, but Grunkle Stan had renamed the spaces and made it impossible for anyone else to win. It was still fun to play nonetheless, because if you ever got a property, Grunkle Stan would freak out.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a sec!" Mabel said as she picked up Waddles, who had come into the room and rolled over next to her. Soos went back to the living room with a smile on his face. Mabel turned back to the window with Waddles in her hand and looked out the glass again. She could just catch a glimpse of Dipper's leg disappearing into the dark forest. Mabel smiled at her reflection that was showing in her mirror. "Good luck Dipper." She said to herself as she hopped down and ran to the living room with Waddles to play the game she would surely lose.

Dipper felt the leaves and twigs crunch under his shoes as they stepped through the grass and mud filled forest. After a couple of times of blindly jumping over logs based solely on when Wendy was telling him to jump, and tripping a couple of times. Dipper asked, "How much further?" Wendy pulled back a bush and led Dipper through it. She stopped in a clearing as Dipper continued walking causing him to run into her. "Ow." He said.

Wendy let go of Dipper's hand and placed her hand gently on the upper half of his back. "You can take it off now." She said dryly. Dipper reached for the blindfold only to be stopped by Wendy's hand. "I meant your shoes." She said as she pointed towards Dipper's sneakers with her other hand.

"Why?" Dipper asked, questioning this whole surprise.

Wendy let go of Dipper's back. "Trust me."

He thought back to the journal. It told him to trust no one; but he had known Wendy all summer. His brain weighed the options, and in the end he didn't want to disappoint his crush. "Ok." He said as he pointed blindly, aiming in the opposite direction from where Wendy was standing.

Wendy smirked as he bent down to take off his shoes. The grass below his feet was soft and cool. The stems of grass tickled his feet as they brushed in the wind. Wendy grabbed Dipper's hand and guided him forward. The soft grass suddenly turned to something softer. It was grainy, smooth and it easily went in between his toes. The sound of rushing water was now audible the more they walked. Wendy stopped again, letting go of Dipper's hand. "Give me a sec." Dipper nodded, still unsure of where he was. The noise of crickets, rushing water, Wendy breathing and her movement were the only things Dipper could hear. He couldn't hear the dark shadow watching from behind the bush in the woods. He couldn't hear Mabel laugh as she took Bottomless Pit Ave. in Stanopoly. He couldn't hear Stan yell, frustrated at the fact that Mabel was winning at a game he designed for the lone purpose of him dominating.

Dipper could feel his heart thumping. He waited for Wendy to say something, but words weren't the first thing he experienced. Wendy's hand was on the back of his head as she ruffle his hair and untied the blindfold. She slowly pulled the black cloth off and Dipper could now see all that was around him. Above him was the night sky. The stars were shining around a lit full moon, with the little dipper straight ahead. He was expecting to see a beach in front of him because of the sand, but instead it was more sky. To his right was more grass and woods, but towards his left there was rushing water that seemed to drop off the side. It was a waterfall. Dipper turned to Wendy. She had taken off her clothes was now standing next to Dipper wearing a light blue one-piece.

Dipper's eyes widened as he raised his right brow. "What's going on?"

Wendy pointed towards the waterfall. "Surprise!" She paused momentarily. "Well, sort of. We're not quite there yet."

Dipper was still confused about what the surprise could be. "We're not?" He gulped at the realization that Wendy would most likely make him jump down the flowing waterfall next to them.

"Nope. And I hope you don't mind getting wet." She said smiling at Dipper.

That smile was enough to melt away some of his fear, but not all of it. "You should have left the blindfold on." Dipper joked, trying to lighten his own mood and impress Wendy."

Wendy chuckled and held out her hand for Dipper to grab. Dipper obliged and held onto it, securing the journal with his other hand. Wendy began to run and he felt his legs start to move as he followed her into the water. He closed his eyes as they both parted with the ground below and fell, with the water splashing around them. Dipper could feel his body splash into the water and go under. Wendy tugged at his hand, motioning him to swim up towards the surface. He swam up with Wendy, still holding onto her hand as they reached the surface. Both of them gasped for air as Dipper coughed up some water he had swallowed. He looked around, water obstructing some of his vision as it dripped from his brown hair. He grabbed his hat that was floating next to him as Wendy and him swam over to dry land. Dipper coughed up some more water after Wendy dragged him up onto the rock.

Dipper looked around and was amazed at what he saw. Above him was a gaping hole that showed the moon and the stars. This hole was about a hundred feet in the air and forty feet in diameter. Gigantic rocks surrounded the place with the exception of the opening, in which the waterfall ran over. There were two man made fixtures in the all natural cavern, one was a swing set that had two seats. The other was a man-made slide that was carved into the rocks and lead to the water below. Dipper stood up, water dripping from his street clothes as he walked up to the wall behind him. There were words etched into the rock that formed white letters that read, _Wendy + Bridget '02. _

Wendy, who was carefully watching Dipper, spoke up, her words echoing off the walls of the cavern. "It was my mother..." She paused. The word's choking her up as she stood up and walked over to Dipper. She rubbed her hand over the words. "We found this place during a walk in the woods. That was the first year we found this place. We were only able to come here a couple of times..." She stopped again.

It was odd for Dipper to see Wendy like this. He had always known her to be the careless teen who was always relax and rarely ever showed emotion. He went up to her, hugging her around her waist. He patted her back as a tear rolled down her cheek. The words somehow managed to escape her mouth. "...Before she passed away." She choked, hugging Dipper back. Despite it hurting, she continued, barreling through her emotions like it was some sort of obstacle course. "She was the only one I could ever really talk to... I can't talk with my dad, he's either busy at work or he's just to "manly" to care and show some emotion."

Dipper rubbed her back as she stopped talking and looked down at him. "Do you know why I brought you here?" She asked, wiping the tears from her eyes. Dipper simply shook his head no. "I can sincerely can trust you." She said, smiling at Dipper. "After the ghosts at the convenience store, and saving the town from Gideon, I can trust you... And so you know, no one else has seen this other than myself and my mom..."

Dipper moved his hand away from Wendy's back and looked at his vest. "Thanks Wendy... it's a special place you have here, and I'm honored to be allowed here." Dipper smiled widely.

"I think you mean a special place we have here." Wendy put a special emphasis on we. "We'll be coming here a lot next summer and hopefully ones following that as well." Wendy smiled as she grabbed Dipper's hand and dragged him over to the swings. The sat down and began to pump, going higher and higher on their swing. "Did you know I built this?"

Dipper looked at her in amazement. "Really?"

"Yep, and the slide there too. A jackhammer can do wonders on this rock." Wendy said back, the small breeze from the swing ruffling her long red hair.

Dipper pictured Wendy using a jackhammer and laughed out loud. he quickly covered his mouth, realizing the mistake he might have just made.

"What's so funny?" Wendy asked him, smiling right into his eyes.

Dipper couldn't lie. "The image of you using a jackhammer." He scrunched up a little on the inside, hoping she wouldn't mind.

Wendy laughed it off. "Trust me, I have muscles." She flexed her biceps as a small bump popped up on each arm.

Dipper laughed with her. Wendy then jumped off her swing and into the water. Dipper followed suit, cannon-balling right next to her. The two swam for a while before getting out and laying underneath the opening in the cavern. They stared at the stars and just talked to each other. Somehow, Dipper was able to carry on a normal conversation.

There was a gap in the conversation. Dipper rolled onto his side and stared at Wendy. He was going to do something, something important, but her beauty made him forget. She rolled onto her side and took notice of his staring. "What are you looking at dork?" She said jokingly, a smile still on her face.

Dipper had noticed something odd. Here, she was able to express her emotions, while elsewhere she refused to. Had Dipper taken over the role as her mom? His spine chilled at the thought, he was hoping it was just a big step towards where he wanted to be. He snapped back to reality. "Uh... I need to ask you something important." Dipper said, nervously.

Wendy inched closer. "What is it?"

Dipper reached into his vest and pulled out the journal. "Do you think you could keep this safe?" He handed it over to her.

"Sure. I can keep an eye on it until you come back..." She paused for a second, slightly recognizing the cover. "Is this that journal you're always writing in?"

Dipper closed his eyes and nodded. He was hoping that she wouldn't ask to read it, but she did exactly that. As Wendy flipped through the pages her expressions changed, she looked disgusted at some of the content, while scared at others. She had a page that showed a ghost on it open... "It's just like convenience store..." She said to herself as she continued flipping through. "Where did you get it?" She said, still staring down at the book.

"The first day Mabel and I got here... I found it buried in the woods." Dipper explained, rubbing the back of his head.

"And you've seen all of these things in here and they're... actually real?" Wendy asked, with her jaw open as she closed the book.

"Most of them... Mabel and I have been fighting a good portion since we've gotten here." Dipper said, closely watching Wendy, ready to comfort her if he needed to.

Wendy tucked the book away. "Why me? Why not have Stan watch it?"

"The book says trust no one... and even though Stan is family, I think he's hiding something... and I can trust you." he paused for a second before getting apologetic. "If you don't want to keep it, that's fine. I can..."

Wendy put her hand over Dipper's mouth. "It's fine. I can watch it." Wendy's smile reassured Dipper as he calmed down. The two laid there for another couple of hours, talking about all the adventures Dipper had gone on with Mabel and all the creatures they had seen. Dipper obviously left out the time-traveling stint, and the clones. However, he had no problem telling her about the gnomes, Bill Cipher and Mermando.

The two got up and swam their way out of the cavern. Wendy pulled the book out when they reached dry land. "How is it not wet?"

"I don't know. It has some magical waterproof spell on it as far as I know." Dipper said as Wendy helped him up.

They made their way up to the top of the waterfall to grab their clothes and shoes. At the top Wendy posed another question. "Do you know who wrote it?"

"Not a clue." Dipper responded, hopping while trying to get his right shoe on.

The two walked back through the woods to the Shack. On the way they continued to talk about the book and the topic of how Gideon was defeated even came up. When they reached the Shack Wendy stopped Dipper.

"Look Dipper, I appreciate you being a great friend..." She paused for a couple of seconds. "... I hope you have a great time off at school." She pulled a torn strip of paper out from her pocket, it had some pre-written numbers on it. "Here's my cell number, so we can talk while you guys are away." Dipper grinned stupidly as she handed him the paper. He was at a loss for words. "I'll keep your book safe." She said. She paused again momentarily before hugging Dipper. She started walking away from the Shack, leaving Dipper there wanting more. "See you next year Dipper Pines... You freak." She whispered back, just enough so Dipper could hear her. She smiled as she turned around and faded into the darkness.

Dipper stood there, waving into the thin night air. "I love you." He whispered before turning around and walking closer to the shack. He opened the door to the gift shop and walked in, closing the door quietly and locking it behind him since it was two in the morning. Dipper made his way through the house and towards the stairs, passing Grunkle Stan who was sleeping soundly in the living room on the couch, snoring like usual. Dipper went up the stairs as quietly as possible. He reached the top and walked over to his room.

He opened the door and snuck in, closing it gently behind him. He turned to see Mabel looking out the window. "Couldn't sleep? He whispered as began to change into his pajamas.

"Nope... And I haven't seen a shooting star this whole time either. Mabel said quietly. She paused for a moment though. Then, she remembered that Dipper had been with Wendy this whole time. She ran to him, hitting him in the arm, nearly knocking Dipper over while he was in the midst of putting his shirt on. "How'd it go with Wendy? Spill the beans now!" She was nearly shouting.

Dipper finished putting on his clothes and put his finger towards his mouth. "Shhh... We don't want to wake Stan." He whispered as he led his sister over to the window.

"So... what happened? Mabel asked. Keeping all of her focus on Dipper.

"Well, first she blindfolded me..." Dipper started to explain, before pausing. Should he tell Mabel about Wendy's special place? Her sanctuary? Was it worth the risk of ruining what Dipper had going for him? "Then she took me to the lake. We swam and sat under the stars and talked..." Dipper paused momentarily. "I also gave her the book to hold onto."

Mabel could really care less about the book right now, she was too enthralled in the saga that was Dipper and Wendy. "Did anything else happen?"

Dipper pulled the slip of paper Wendy had given to him and waved it around joyously, with a big grin on his face. "She gave me her cell phone number."

"Shut up!" Mabel screamed as she pushed Dipper, causing him to fall.

Stan woke up to the sound of this. "...Suit Up?" He looked at the clock. "What? It's 2 AM... Stan, go to bed." Stan leaned back on the soft couch and almost immediately went to sleep.

Dipper was still smiling when Mabel decided to help him up. Almost simultaneously, a bright shooting-star crossed through the sky. Dipper pointed towards the window. "Look a shooting star!" Mabel finished helping him up, and still holding his hand they closed their eyes and made their superstitious wish. Mabel wished that summer would last longer, while Dipper wished that things would work out between him and Wendy. They both opened their eyes at the same time and went to their beds.

"What'd you wish for?" Mabel asked as she pulled her covers up.

"If I told you, it wouldn't come true." Dipper said slyly, sticking his tongue out at his sister. Almost in an instant, the Pines twins drifted off into sleep, exhausted from the long day each of them had.

An hour later a cool breeze swept into the room. A black shadowy figure climbed silently through the crack in the twins triangle shaped window. He stood in the center of the room before splitting into two, causing a perfect replica to stand there next to him. The two dark figures walked over to each twin and placed their hand on Dipper and Mabel's forehead. A white glow emanated from their hands as the twins eyes opened and glowed a blueish color. They floated off their beds before being let down slowly. The white light flash and then disappeared. The figures were gone, and hadn't left a trace.

* * *

_**Wow, longest chapter I've ever written. Hopefully you enjoyed it! -GrapplingHook**_


	3. Love And Pain Is All The Same

Dipper rolled around in his sleep. He was running with Mabel in a field, chasing after Soos who had stolen the book from them. A dragon swooped out of nowhere and snatched Mabel up. Dipper cried on his knees, and when he looked up a black figure was standing in front of him. Dipper's eyes opened. He was lying on the floor again. He was sweating, nearly uncontrollably. He groaned as he got up, his back was sore and he would probably have a bruise there soon. Dipper climbed back into bed and looked over at Mabel while he yawned. She was fast asleep. Dipper pulled the covers over him and fell back asleep.

A couple of hours passed before Dipper woke up to the sensation of Grunkle Stan shaking him. "Get up Dipper. It's almost time to go." Dipper opened his eyes as Stan left the room. He looked over to Mabel who was just finishing putting on an orange sweater that had black letters that spelled out _Goodbye_. Mabel saw him wake up and turned to him. Dipper could tell that she was upset. "Don't wanna go home, eh?" Dipper said as he sat up in his bed. Mabel shook her head no and slumped down to the floor as she began to cry.

Dipper acted fast and grabbed the stick Mabel usually left on the floor by their bed. "Come on. The fun stick doesn't want you to cry." He said as he poked Mabel with it. She was having none of it. She forcefully ripped the stick out of Dipper's hands and snapped it in half.

Dipper frowned, but regardless of her action he sat down next to Mabel and held her in his arms. "This hurts me as much as it hurts you..." Dipper stopped as Mabel looked up at him. "...But just think, we'll be back next summer. This isn't the end of the Mystery Twins." Dipper stood up, then bent down and gave Mabel his hand.

Mabel wiped the tears that rolled down her face and took Dipper's hand. Dipper helped her up and she moved over to the window. She peered out as Dipper changed into his usual clothes. "I don't get it." She said, shaking her head at the window.

"Get what?" Dipper said as he put his vest around him.

"We do all this monster hunting for the sake of protecting the town and it's people... and what do we get?" Mabel said, now facing Dipper. "Absolutely nothing. I ask for one simple thing, and receive... nothing." She began to cry again.

Dipper went up to her. He wasn't sure what to say that would comfort her. Thankfully Grunkle Stan shouted up the stairs to them. "Kids!"

Dipper yelled back that they'd be down in a second. He looked at Mabel. "Come on sis... at least we get to see mom and dad." Mabel sniffled and followed Dipper out of the room and down the stairs. Dipper reached into his pockets when they reached the kitchen where Grunkle Stan was making breakfast. His bus ticket wasn't there. "Hey Grunkle Stan, have you seen my bus ticket?" Dipper asked he sat down at the table.

Stan came over with a pan of eggs and put them on Dipper and Mabel's plate. "I have them both here, but I wasn't going to give them to you until later." Stan said. Mabel dropped her head onto her plate, clearly not caring for this conversation.

"Ok." Dipper said as Stan handed him the tickets. He thought to himself as placed them in his pockets. Stan's an old man, he probably just forgot that he gave them to us yesterday.

"Are you ready for the big day?" Stan said as he sat down next to the kids and scooped some scrambled eggs onto his plate. "I have a nice surprise lined up for you two."

Mabel groaned and Dipper looked curiously at Stan. "What kind of plans?" He asked.

"It's a surprise for a reason Dipper, yeesh!" Grunkle Stan moaned as he stuffed his face with eggs. Stan wiped his mouth with a napkin. "But if you must know, I was planning on taking you two fishing."

Mabel immediately looked up from her plate and turned to Dipper, who was now staring back at her. "Didn't we do that yesterday?" Dipper asked, questioning what was going on."

"No..." Stan trailed off.

"I thought we were going back home today." Mabel said.

"That's tomorrow... I didn't know you two were so anxious to leave." Grunkle Stan said as he got up from the table.

Dipper looked at a now grinning Mabel. Her wish had come true, summer hadn't ended for them just yet. There was a knock at the gift shop door. Dipper got up, he was still confused about exactly what was going on, but he had a general idea. He walked over to the door and opened it up. Wendy was standing there with her long red hair. "What's up Dipper?" She said as she hugged him and walked inside. Dipper shut the door behind them.

There was really only one way to find out if his wish had worked. But Wendy had started to talk before Dipper could say a word. "I know Stan is going fishing with you, but I was wondering if you wanted to see a movie tonight... that and I have a surprise for you as well." Wendy said, fluffing the back of her hair while leaning on the counter.

"Uh... sure?" Despite Dipper's confusion, he had no intention of blowing this opportunity with Wendy.

"Cool. Here's my number." Wendy handed him a slip of paper, it looked like the exact same one she gave Dipper just last night. Dipper stood there looking at the all to familiar paper. Wendy stood up straight and then leaned down and gave Dipper a peck on his cheeks as Mabel walked into the doorway. "I'll see you later." She said, leaving Dipper there shell-shocked.

Mabel went up to Dipper and patted him on the back. "Great job Dip." She said happily.

"I didn't do anything." Dipper said, staring at the slip of paper. He suddenly grabbed Mabel's hand and dragged her to the door of the gift shop. He opened it up. Clouds covered the sun and the rest of the sky. It was a pretty gloomy day, but it was warm. "Why isn't it snowing, like it did yesterday?" Mabel shrugged her shoulders. Dipper slammed the door closed and dragged his sister along upstairs to their room. He closed the door behind him. He reached under his pillow. The journal was still there. He pulled it out.

"I thought you gave the journal to Wendy?" Mabel asked as she hopped up onto her bed.

"I did." Dipper said as he began to flip through it, reading the details of each monster they hadn't encountered yet very carefully. "Clearly, yesterday never happened."

"Then how did our wishes come true?" Mabel asked. Dipper continued to look through the journal, becoming more furious with each page he turned.

"I don't know. It also seems that each day doesn't happen the same. There must be certain variables within each day that change with each new day." Dipper said as he continued flipping.

"In English Dipper..." Mabel said, completely confused about what her brother was talking about.

Dipper stopped flipping and looked at Mabel. "Basically, there are certain... things about each day that can change. For example, the weather. It was snowing yesterday, but it's cloudy now."

"So everyday won't be the same?" Mabel asked, slowly comprehending the situation.

"For the most part..." Dipper said as he went back to flipping pages. Shortly after, he slammed the book shut. It contained no answers as to what could have made their wishes came true.

"Did you find anything?" said Mabel.

"No... There's nothing!" Dipper said frustrated. "The only thing I could think of is Bill Cipher. But I thought he was sent back from where he came."

Mabel played with her hair. "Maybe Gideon knows."

Dipper thought for a second. Gideon was pretty familiar with the books, maybe he would know. "Mabel, it looks like we'll be visiting the state prison today."

"But what about Grunkle Stan?" Mabel asked, remembering about their plans to go fishing.

Dipper smirked. "I have a feeling he wouldn't mind helping us ruffle Gideon's feathers a little."

The twins went downstairs to the living room where Grunkle Stan was preparing the fishing poles. He looked up at them with tired eyes. "You ready to go fishing kids?" He said, struggling to tie a lure on Dipper's pole and making grunting noises. "As soon as I get this lure on..."

"Actually Grunkle Stan..." Dipper started, before being cut off by Stan who was almost off in his own little world.

"I've been looking forward to this fishing trip for nearly a month now. It's been a while since we've gone fishing." He came back down to earth. "What was it you were saying?"

Mabel pulled Dipper back and out of earshot from Stan. "Maybe we shouldn't see Gideon today."

"What! Why not?" Dipper whispered back.

"I'd feel bad for Stan if we ditched our plans with him. Besides, if my wish did come true then we'll have tomorrow to visit him." Mabel looked at Stan, who was looking at Dipper, waiting for a response.

After a quick deliberation he turned to Stan. "Uhh... I just wanted to ask... when are we leaving?"

Stan grabbed all the poles and held them in his arm. "Right now. Everyone to the car! The clock is ticking." Stan said as he walked out of the room.

Mabel leaned over to Dipper. "That's what he thinks." She giggled and left Dipper there alone.

Dipper looked over at the phone on the counter. Something was calling him over to it. Dipper walked over to the phone and picked it up. The phone was dead silent for three seconds. Then, a startling gurgling noise on the other end found its way to Dipper's ear. Dipper jumped back and dropped the phone. He was breathing heavily now. Dipper looked around to see if anyone was there watching him, but the house was silent. Dipper bent down slowly and picked up the phone. The gurgling noise was still on the other end. Dipper silently swallowed and answered the noise on the other end. "Hello?"

The gargling stopped and the line went silent. A deep, hoarse and ominous voice answered Dipper, sending chills down his spine as the words went into his ear. "Right now it's all fun and games, but there will come a time to pay. Wishes come at a price, and that's if I'm feeling nice. Now go fish by the lake carefully, or that's where you'll be for eternity." The phone went silent again before a beeping noise signaled that the conversation was over. Shaking, Dipper hung up the phone. Immediately as he did so, the phone turned from its dark blue color to gray and slowly began to float towards the ceiling. The ceiling above it began to turn gray as well, Dipper looked around him. It seemed that the paint around him was dripping off the walls and being replaced by none other than the grayish color that was encompassing the room. Dipper saw a small bright explosion in front of him as the phone spontaneously combusted in front of his eyes, then the phone exploded. Dipper crashed to the floor, covering the back of his head as he watched tiny pieces of flaming plastic hit the floor around him. He got back up and turned to where the phone was floating. There was nothing there, no color, no ceiling. It looked as if a black hole was in their place, and it was growing.

Dipper turned around to find Mabel standing there looking at him. Dipper was sweating and there was an expression of horror on his face as he watched all of Mabel's color turn to gray. Her orange sweater appeared to drip all the color onto the floor, forming an orange puddle. Dipper took a step back and rubbed his eyes.

"Dipper, are you okay?" A now colorful Mabel asked him as Dipper squinted his eyes at her.

He opened them and looked around frantically. All of the color had been returned to the walls, the black hole was gone, and the phone was back where Dipper had first grabbed it. He turned back to Mabel. "Uhh... Yeah, I'm fine."

Mabel went up closer to her brother and inspected him. Dipper's nose had started bleeding. She grabbed a paper towel and stuck it under his nose. "That's why your nose is bleeding." She said as she brought him over to the bathroom. Dipper looked in the mirror as he pulled the paper towel away from his nose. A small streak of blood ran out his nostril, and down above his lip before dripping into the white sink. He put the paper towel back on his nose and tilted his head back while Mabel kept her hand on her brother's back.

Stan, who had waited in the car for a while came into the house and found the twins in the bathroom. He saw the blood in the sink and looked at Dipper. "What happened?"

Mabel took her hand off Dipper's back and leaned forward so that she was in Dipper's eyesight. "Yeah, what did happen?"

Dipper couldn't tell Stan what he saw, so he had to lie... for now. "I tripped and hit my nose on the ground?"

"You're so clumsy. Jeez, you remind me..." Stan stopped his sentence, catching his sentence before it went too far. He took a step out of the bathroom. "I'll be in the car."

After a few seconds and the sound of a door closing, Mabel looked out the door and saw that Stan was gone. She shut the door and turned to Dipper. "What happened? you were looking at me like I was a ghost."

Dipper didn't want her sister to worry, he just wanted her to enjoy her wish. At least for today, he couldn't tell her. "It was nothing. I can tell you later. It's no big deal."

Mabel wasn't going to let her brother off the hook that easily. "I think..." She was stopped by the sound of the phone ringing. "I'll get that."

Dipper's heart started beating. What if it was that same voice. "Wait!" Dipper shouted as Mabel opened the door.

Mabel turned around as Dipper walked up to her. "I'll get it." He turned to place the bloody paper towel on the counter, but when he turned back around. Mabel had left him for the phone.

He ran to Mabel as he watched her pick the phone up. "Hello, this is Mabel, how may I help you?" She said in her cute girly voice. There was a silence on the phone. She tried again. "Hello?"

The dark, raspy and ominous voice came on the phone again. Mabel's skin crawled as he talked. "Love costs more than fun..." Dipper could tell that something was wrong as he ran up to Mabel and nearly smacked the phone out of her hand. But the phone beeped, signaling that there was another call.

"Hold on one sec." Mabel said, interrupting the voice. Dipper stopped his slap. She pressed the call waiting button on the phone and answered it, he skin stopped crawling as she did so. "Hello?"

It was Wendy. "Hey Mabel! Is Dipper there?"

Mabel turned to Dipper and handed him the phone. "It's for you." She said.

Dipper slowly brought the phone to his ear. "Hello?" He said, shutting his eyes tightly, hoping it wasn't the voice.

When he heard Wendy's cheerful voice he perked right up. "Hey Dip! I almost forgot to tell you earlier. When I come and get you later, make sure you have your bathing suit on."

"Okay Wendy!" He answered back, close to yelling over the phone.

"Cool! See you then!" Wendy said as Dipper hung up the phone.

Mabel looked at Dipper as he put the phone on the counter. "Did you hang up?"

"Yeah, why?" Dipper said as he rubbed his hand underneath his nose to see if it had finished bleeding.

"There was someone on the other line." She thought momentarily. "I think it was a telemarketer though, so not a big deal."

Dipper saw that there was no blood on his hands and sighed a breath of relief. "You ready to go fishing!" Dipper said, still somewhat nervously, masking it up with excitement as best he could as he tried to decipher what the voice had meant by its little poem.

Stan drove the kids to the Gravity Falls lake, Dipper thinking about the poem each minute of the way there. He tried his best to forget about it as they went out onto the lake in the boat. Dipper didn't want it to ruin the fishing trip. Dipper found it odd that he again caught what appeared to be the same decent sized fish as last time. However, Mabel lost her bet with Stan as he caught a fish in forty-five seconds. After fishing, Stan took the kids again to the Diner for one last meal. the twins were able to get dessert again as the sun set beyond the window of their booth.

The twins chose to get Apple Pie this time around as they finished up the last slice and the three Pines left the Diner and headed back to the Mystery Shack. It was dark and the kids were full just like the time before. "Thanks Grunkle Stan." Dipper said to him, keeping his gaze out of his direction and out of the rear window of the car as he continued to think about the poem.

"You two deserved it. Thanks for helping out at the Shack. If you two want to come back again next summer, then it's fine with me." Grunkle Stan said affectionately. It was very rare for Stan to show his love for the twins, but when he did, it was clear that he meant every word that came out of his mouth. "Wow... talk about Deja Vu." Stan said.

Mabel grinned as she looked at Dipper. She hopped up and down in her seat, excited about the offer to come back next summer. "Definitely!" Mabel screamed.

"Calm down kid, before you give me a heart attack." Grunkle Stan said before laughing.

Soos, who had gone home earlier in the day, was waiting by the Mystery Shack talking with Wendy. Stan pulled up next to them as they got out of the car.

"Hey dork." Wendy said, punching Dipper playfully in the arm.

"Hey. I'll get my bathing suit on and be back out." Dipper said as he rubbed his arm and blushed.

Dipper rushed inside to change. He put his street clothes on over his bathing suit and grabbed the journal. He rushed downstairs, not noticing that Wendy was in the living room talking to Soos, Stan and Mabel. Dipper opened up the door to the gift shop and shut it behind him. he called out her name. "Wendy!" But he received no response. There was a rattling noise coming over from the garbage cans. He turned quickly in the noises direction, half startled and half sure that it was Wendy.

When Dipper turned around, he was face to face with the black figure that had entered his room and made his wish come true.

The darkness around the figure made it difficult for Dipper to distinctively analyze the shadowy figure. "Wendy?" He peeped. The figure didn't answer and stood there in silence. It was taller than Wendy but had no hair and had large black eyes. There was a black space where a nose would usually be on a person, and it's mouth was also black. Dipper looked at its body. It had four arms, all with hands like a human, but sharp nails like a werewolf. The figure opened its mouth, its razor sharp white teeth contrasted the inside of the mouth and the rest of its black body. Another row of sharp teeth appeared behind the first as it got closer to Dipper. It let out a high pitched scream, forcing Dipper to cover his ears. Dipper was shaking as he backed away from this monster, nearly tripping over the wooden step to the front of the shack. The high pitched scream shattered the porch light and made Dipper tremble even more when it got louder. "Stop!" He begged. Not even able to hear the words coming out of his mouth.

Dipper turned as the door opened behind him. Wendy peered out as she saw Dipper cowering. "Dipper?"

Dipper looked up at Wendy's concerned face and then back at where the monster was. It had vanished. He got up slowly and dusted himself off. "I was... practicing my cannonball." He laughed awkwardly. "Assuming we're going swimming that is."

"Actually, I need you to put on this blindfold." Wendy said, holding out the same dark blindfold that she had Dipper put on a night ago. Dipper put it on and tied it tight with no questions asked. Wendy stood in front of him and held up two fingers. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Dipper shrugged again and guessed. "Three?"

Wendy smiled as she grabbed Dipper's hand. She put on her knapsack with her other hand and brought Dipper into the forest.

Mabel peered out the window of the gift shop as she watched the two disappear into the forest. She turned around at the sound of Soos' voice. "Hey Hambone." He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb towards the living room. "Stan and I were wondering if you'd be up for one last game of Stanopoly?"

"Sure!" Mabel said as she picked up Waddles, who had come into the room and rolled over next to her. Soos went back to the living room with a smile on his face. Mabel turned back to the window with Waddles in her hand and looked out the glass again. Mabel smiled at her reflection that was showing in her mirror. "Good luck Dipper."She shivered at the words that gave her Deja Vu.

Dipper felt the leaves and twigs crunch under his shoes as he patiently waited for them to reached the waterfall. Wendy stopped and Dipper ran into her, yet again.

Wendy let go of Dipper's hand and placed her hand gently on the upper half of his back. "You can take it off now." She said dryly. Dipper took off his shoes and his pants, exposing his blue and white swim trunks. "I definitely thought you were going to go for the blindfold there." Wendy said as she laughed. Dipper laughed with her, waiting for Wendy to change into her swimsuit. A cold breeze blew on the back of Dipper's neck as he stood there. He could hear the waterfall that was closely in front of him.

He felt Wendy let go of his hand. "Give me a sec." She said. Dipper nodded showing he understood. Dipper could feel his heart thumping. He waited for Wendy to say something, but words weren't the first thing he experienced. Wendy's hand was on the back of his head as she ruffle his hair and untied the blindfold. She slowly pulled the black cloth off and Dipper could now see all that was around him. It was eerily similar to what the previous night had looked like. Dipper turned to Wendy. She had taken off her clothes was now standing next to Dipper wearing a maroon one-piece.

Dipper's eyes widened as he tried to play dumb. "What's going on?"

Wendy pointed towards the waterfall. "Surprise!" She paused momentarily. "Well, sort of. We're not quite there yet."

Wendy smiled and held out her hand for Dipper to grab. Dipper knowing that he could trust her, held on, securing the journal with his other hand. Wendy began to run and he felt his legs start to move as he followed her into the water. He closed his eyes as they both parted with the ground below and fell, with the water splashing around them. Dipper could feel his body splash into the water and go under. Wendy tugged at his hand, motioning him to swim up towards the surface. He swam up with Wendy, still holding onto her hand as they reached the surface. Both of them gasped for air as they swam over to the rocks.

Dipper looked around and was amazed at what he saw, even if it was the second time. Dipper stood up, water dripping from his hair as he walked up to the wall behind him. He rubbed his hands over the white letters that read, _Wendy + Bridget '02._

Wendy, who was carefully watching Dipper, spoke up, her words echoing off the walls of the cavern. "It was my mother..." She paused. The word's choking her up as she stood up and walked over to Dipper. She rubbed her hand over the words. "We found this place during a walk in the woods. That was the first year we found this place. We were only able to come here a couple of times..." She stopped again.

Even though Dipper had already been through it before, it was still odd for him to see Wendy like this. He went up to her, hugging her around her waist. He patted her back as a tear rolled down her cheek. The words somehow managed to escape her mouth. "...Before she passed away." She choked, hugging Dipper back. She continued with her heartfelt story. "She was the only one I could ever really talk to... I can't talk with my dad, he's either busy at work or he's just to "manly" to care and show some emotion."

Dipper rubbed her back as she stopped talking and looked down at him. "Do you know why I brought you here?" She asked, wiping the tears from her eyes. Dipper simply shook his head no. "I can sincerely can trust you." She said, smiling at Dipper. "After the ghosts at the convenience store, and saving the town from Gideon, I can trust you... And so you know, no one else has seen this other than myself and my mom..."

Dipper moved his hand away from Wendy's back and looked at his vest. "Thanks Wendy... it's a special place you have here, and I'm honored to be allowed here." Dipper smiled widely.

"I think you mean a special place we have here." Wendy put a special emphasis on we. "We'll be coming here a lot next summer and hopefully ones following that as well." Wendy stopped, it looked as if she was thinking about something that was troubling her. "Dipper... I want you to know that I'm not as stupid as I look."

An extreme look of fear swiped across Dipper's face. "Of course you're not..." He said awkwardly. He tried to laugh it off, but Wendy wasn't laughing.

Wendy was completely serious and put her hand on Dipper's shoulder. "I'm going to be frank here. I know you have a crush on me Dipper." Dipper's face became pale. He wasn't sure how to react. Turns out, he didn't need to. Wendy leaned down and gave Dipper a kiss on the cheek. He blushed as she stood up and looked him in the eye. "I will tell you this Dipper... for some reason, I feel myself drawn towards you." Then, as if she had never said anything, Wendy punched Dipper in the arm. "Last one in the lake is a rotten egg!" She pushed past Dipper and jumped into the lake. Dipper, who was very confused, walked to the edge of the lake and stood there. "You coming in?" A smiling Wendy asked him.

Dipper turned around and looked behind him, staring at Wendy's name etched into the rock. He looked back at Wendy and jumped into the pool next to her. Dipper figured it was just his wish acting on Wendy. They swam around for a while before getting out and laying on the rocks, carrying on a regular conversation.

There was a gap in the conversation. Dipper rolled onto his side and stared at Wendy. He was going to do something, something important, but her beauty made him forget, again. She rolled onto her side and took notice of his staring. "What are you looking at dork?" She said jokingly, a smile still on her face.

He snapped back to reality. "Uh... I need to ask you something important." Dipper said, nervously.

Wendy inched closer. "What is it?"

Dipper reached into his vest and pulled out the journal. "Do you think you could keep this safe?" He handed it over to her.

"Sure. I can keep an eye on it until you come back..." She paused for a second, slightly recognizing the cover. "Is this that journal you're always writing in?"

Dipper closed his eyes and nodded. Wendy flipped through the pages and her expressions changed, she looked disgusted at some of the content, while scared at others. She had a page that showed a ghost on it open... "It's just like convenience store..." She said to herself as she continued flipping through. "Where did you get it?" She said, still staring down at the book.

"The first day Mabel and I got here... I found it buried in the woods." Dipper explained, rubbing the back of his head.

"And you've seen all of these things in here and they're... actually real?" Wendy asked, with her jaw open as she closed the book.

"Most of them... Mabel and I have fought a good portion since we've gotten here." Dipper said, closely watching Wendy, ready to comfort her if he needed to.

Wendy tucked the book away. "Why me? Why not have Stan or Soos watch it?"

"The book says trust no one... and even though Stan is family, I think he's hiding something... and I can trust you." He paused for a second before getting apologetic. "If you don't want to keep it, that's fine. I can..."

Wendy put her hand over Dipper's mouth. "It's fine. I can watch it." Wendy's smile reassured Dipper as he calmed down. The two laid there for another couple of hours, talking about all the adventures Dipper had gone on with Mabel and all the creatures they had seen, including the gnomes, Bill Cipher and Mermando.

The two left Wendy's hideout, grabbed their belongings and walked back through the woods to the Shack. On the way back they reminisced on the fun times they had during the summer. When they reached the Shack Wendy stopped Dipper.

"I hope you have a great time off at school." She bent down and kissed Dipper on the lips. There it was, Dipper's big moment. He felt his lips pucker up as he encountered his first kiss. He had finally experienced what he had wanted to experience for a long time; and the fact that it was with a girl he liked made it that much sweeter. She leaned away and stood up straight, leaving Dipper there wanting more. "Make sure you call me... a lot... boyfriend." Dipper now had no idea what had happened to make her assume such a thing. Wendy began to walk away from him. "See you next year Dipper Pines... You freak." She whispered back, just enough so Dipper could hear her. She smiled as she turned around and faded into the darkness.

Dipper stood there, in absolute shock. He was happy, scared, surprised and relieved all at the same time. He rushed back to the shack. He opened the door to the gift shop and ran in, closing the door and locking it behind him. Dipper hurried through the house and towards the stairs, passing Grunkle Stan who was sleeping soundly in the living room on the couch, snoring like usual. Dipper hopped up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. A smile had found his face with each step he took.

He opened the door to his room walked in with confidence and nearly slammed it behind him. He looked at Mabel, who was sitting up in her bed waiting for Dipper to explain what happened on his adventure with Wendy.

Dipper left her hanging and changed into pajamas. He hopped into bed and looked back at Mabel. "What happened!" She shouted to him. "Did she take you to her sanctuary?"

Dipper nodded. "Yep... then, things got a little weird."

Mabel, who was now fully interested, ran over to Dipper's bed and hopped onto it, bringing her diary to write all the details of her brother's adventure. Dipper rolled his eyes, seeing that Mabel had brought over her pink diary that had a picture of a gray kitten on it. "What happened?" She whispered.

"Let's see... first Wendy told me that she knew that I had a crush on her." Dipper said, Mabel's jaw dropped as a result. "Then, she said she liked me back and she kissed me on the cheek." Mabel squealed. "Then, we walked back... and she kissed me."

"Like on the lips?" Mabel asked, writing furiously in her journal.

"Yeah... and then she called me her boyfriend." Dipper said scratching his head.

"Shut up!" Mabel said, pushing the sitting Dipper backwards. "Why do you look upset about it?"

"It's just... weird. I never thought I'd hear those words out of her mouth. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy, but at the same time I feel that I cheated on a test." A somber Dipper said as he looked out the window. "Also, I wasn't completely honest with you earlier."

"What do you m..." Dipper cut Mabel right off.

"When I picked up the phone before we left, a weird voice was talking to me and recited a poem to me." Dipper said, easily remembering the wretched words the evil voice had said. He recited it like a zombie. "Right now it's all fun and games, but there will come a time to pay. Wishes come at a price, and that's if I'm feeling nice. Now go fish by the lake carefully, or that's where you'll be for eternity." Mabel didn't realize Dipper was talking about the same voice that she called a telemarketer when she had answered the phone shortly after Dipper.

Mabel closed her journal and walked over to her bed, placing the journal under her pillow. Dipper wasn't going to tell her anything about the black figure he had encountered. It would scare her and give her nightmares. "Do we get another re-do tomorrow?" Mabel asked her brother as she yawned.

"There's only one way to find out. But tomorrow we go see Gideon." Dipper said as he pulled his covers over himself and turned around on his side. "Goodnight Mabel."

"Goodnight Dipper." Mabel said back tiredly.

The two twins quickly fell asleep and soon after a white light encompassed the room. A cool breeze swept into the room. The black shadowy figure climbed silently through the crack in the twins triangle shaped window. He stood in the center of the room before splitting into four figures this time. All of which were perfect replicas. Two of the dark figures walked over Mabel and two made their way towards Dipper as they placed their hands on Dipper and Mabel's foreheads. A white glow emanated from their hands as the twins eyes opened and glowed a blueish color. They floated off their beds before being let down slowly. Blood began to streak down Dipper's face from both of his eyes.

One of the shadow opened up his sharp mouth and turned to the original figure. It spoke in tongues. In a language that wasn't human. "He's weaker than I thought. What should we do?"

The original figure turned to the shadow. "He'll learn quickly that time is running out. He may be weak, but he is smart."

The figure standing next to the original spoke up. A sharp black tongue, similar to a snake's, wriggled in its mouth. "What about the girl?"

"We'll make the necessary adjustments." The original said.

A flash of white light illuminated the room before fading away. Again, the figures were gone.


	4. Memory Loss

Dipper ran after Mabel as she went into the woods crying, she seemed to be much faster than him. "Mabel, wait!" He screamed. Dipper was now crying himself and he turned as he felt two hands on his back. It was Wendy and Grunkle Stan. He looked at them and they didn't say a word. Suddenly the Mystery Shack exploded in front of Dipper as a werewolf came out of nowhere and knocked him over.

Dipper found himself awake on the floor. The sun was shining through the window in their room as he got up and rubbed his eyes. Dipper noticed that there was blood on his hands as he brought them down to his side. He put them in the sunlight and looked at the dried red blood on them. He quickly went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Dried streaks of red ran down from each eye and from each nostril in his nose. Dipper turned to the door and shut it with a loud slam as he locked it and began to vigorously wipe the blood off his face with a wet washcloth. When Dipper finally got all the blood off his face he looked down at the now red-stained cloth. He shook his head. "How did this happen?" He said to himself as he began to wash the cloth, the water became a light red color as it circled down the drain.

Dipper looked in the mirror, he was noticeably pale, and even felt weak. Then, a sudden onset of pain entered his stomach as he began to feel nauseous. Leaving the water running and dropping the cloth in the sink, Dipper quickly hurried over to the toilet and lifted the seat up. He fell to his knees as he began to hurl into the toilet bowl. Dipper could see a little blood mixed in as he began to dry heave. There was a knock on the door. "You okay in there kid?" It was Stan. He tried to jiggle open the door, despite it being locked. "You sound like a pregnant woman in there." Stan chuckled at his own joke. One Dipper didn't quite understand. "You crack me up Stanford Pines." He silently said to himself.

He banged on the door again. Dipper was able to muster up some strength to talk. "I'm okay." Dipper said in between tears and dry heaves as he tried to talk over the running faucet.

"Are you sure?" Stan asked as Dipper dry heaved again.

Dipper stood up and flushed the toilet disgustedly, before his reflexes made him dry heave again. "Yeah." He said as he leaned over the sink and spit into it.

"Okay." Stan said as he smacked the door and went elsewhere.

Dipper shut the faucet off and dried his hands with a towel behind him. Turning around he jumped at the sight of a familiar black figure in the mirror. He couldn't remember exactly where he had seen the tall black monster before. The monster opened its mouth, showing two rows of sharp teeth. A high pitch scream began to ring into Dipper's ears as he tried to cover them to protect himself. The rectangular mirror in front of Dipper shattered as it fell in front of him. Dipper turned around, still covering his ears and looked at the shower curtain. The figure was gone. Dipper pulled back the shower curtain, it wasn't there. He looked back at the mirror and it was still intact. He walked up to it and ran his hand along it. There were no scratches or streaks. Dipper backed out of the bathroom before running into Mabel.

Mabel grabbed a hold of him, not noticing that he was pale and put her arm around his shoulder. "We need to find Stan. We need to see if the wish came true again." She dragged him to the kitchen where Stan was making breakfast. "Grunkle Stan! What are we doing today?" She asked as she went to the table. There was a knock on the gift shop door.

"I'll get it." Dipper said, figuring he could use some fresh air anyways. Dipper made his way to the door and opened it up. Wendy stood there with a big grin on her face. "Hey Dip!" Wendy said as she barged her way into the shack.

"Hey Wendy. What are you doing here?" Dipper said nervously.

Wendy bent down and kissed Dipper on the lips as if there was nothing to it. "I'm going on the fishing trip with you guys, remember?" They walked into the kitchen together, Wendy holding Dipper's hand as Dipper walked like a zombie. He was too confused about what Wendy was talking about and shocked that she had kissed him so nonchalantly to even move. "Hey Mr. Pines." Wendy said as she entered the kitchen.

Stan turned around and a smile popped onto his face. He walked up to Wendy and gave her a hug. "I'm glad you could join us. I'm sure nothing would make Dipper happier." Stan said as he ruffled Dipper's hair before returning to the pan on the stove that was full of scrambled eggs and bacon.

"Can I talk to you... in private, Mabel?" Dipper said as he stared into space.

Mabel and Dipper walked out of the kitchen and into the living room, out of earshot from everyone else. "What's up Dipper?" Mabel asked,

"What is going on? Why is Wendy acting so... close to me? I remember talking to her and she gave me her cell number." Dipper said, searching his pockets for the slip of paper.

"You told me last night that she kissed you on the lips and called you her boyfriend. I have it written in my diary." Mabel left Dipper standing there completely confused before returning with her diary that has the gray kitten on it. Mabel flipped open to the page she had written in last night. She gave the book to Dipper as he read along before dropping the book on the floor.

"I don't remember any of that." He said, slouching up against a wall and falling to the ground. He put his hands over his eyes. "Why can't I remember?"

Mabel sat down next to him and put her arm around his shoulder. "Maybe it's because I was the one who wished for summer to never end... Grunkle Stan, Wendy and everyone else doesn't seem to remember yesterday either."

"That makes sense." Dipper said as he sighed and put his hands on his lap. "So I kissed Wendy yesterday, huh?"

"You told me that you were happy, but it felt like you cheated on a test." Mabel said, grinning as her braces shined in her mouth.

Dipper chuckled. "That sounds like something I would say."

Mabel got up and gave her brother a hand to help him up. "Just think, Wendy is your girlfriend... Enjoy it while it's happening, I'm sure these wishes have to run out sometime."

Dipper smiled and gave his sister a hug. They walked back into the kitchen where Grunkle Stan was sitting at the table eating with Wendy. "There you two are." He said with a mouth full of bacon. "Hurry up and eat, we have a long day ahead of us."

Dipper hopped into his seat next to Wendy and began to eat. "Isn't this going to be fun Dip?" Wendy said to Dipper as she began to play footsie with Dipper. "I can't remember the last time we've gone fishing together."

"Glad I'm not the only one." Dipper responded slyly, getting a giggle from Mabel. Dipper wasn't feeling all that hungry. He ate most of the bacon, but played with the eggs with his fork. Wendy noticed this odd behavior from Dipper.

"Why aren't you eating Dipper?" Wendy asked while putting her hand on Dipper's back. Her hand was warm and it relaxed Dipper as he turned to her.

"Not hungry." Dipper didn't even bother to look over at Wendy.

Stan stuck his fork into some eggs on Dipper's plate and began eating them. "Good, more for me."

Dipper pushed his chair back, causing Wendy to remove her hand. "Excuse me." Dipper said as he got up and walked towards his room.

"What's his problem?" Stan asked Mabel. She shrugged, despite knowing the answer.

"Should I talk to him?" Wendy said as she got up from her chair.

Mabel was quick to answer back and disprove of Wendy's question. "No." She shouted before talking awkwardly. "I mean, I think he just needs some time to think."

Wendy sat back down on her chair. "Ok... Is there any more bacon Mr. Pines?" She asked as she chomped on the last piece on her plate.

Dipper closed the door to their room. He paced around in circles as he thought with his hand rubbing his chin. He stopped by his bed and folded his arms. "Hmmm." He said to himself. Dipper reached down underneath his pillow and grabbed the book. He rifled through the pages for a creature that made wishes come true, but again his search turned up empty. He tried looking for a picture of the black figure he had seen in the bathroom, but he found nothing for that as well. Dipper sat on his bed and punched his pillow. "This doesn't make any sense." He thought back to the last day he could remember. He remembered the snow and riding on the snowmobile with Wendy as her hair blew into Dipper's face. He could remember the fishing trip, and eating pie at the diner. He remembered going to Wendy's secret cavern, but he couldn't remember what happened after that. "That's it!" Dipper exclaimed as he searched through the book with a new keyword on his mind. Memory Loss.

Dipper flipped through page after page before stumbling upon a page that had memory loss written under a symptoms column. He looked up at the title of the page and quickly disregarded it. "Magic Mushrooms? I hate mushrooms, there's no way I would have eaten one." He said read the other symptoms before turning the page. This page also had the words memory loss written on it. He looked at the title. "Pixies?" He looked over the rest of the page before throwing that idea out the window. He had never seen a pixie before. The next page was Bill Cipher, so Dipper turned to the following page. "This might be it." Dipper said happily as he read the description of the creature. "The Speicherhund may look like an ordinary dog, but beware, a bite from this creature can cause vomiting and memory loss. I have not encountered other symptoms and the memory loss only seems to effect your memory up to a day before the bite. However, it is possible that there are more symptoms. The only way to prevent these effects is by washing the wound out immediately with tomato juice."

Dipper thought back to the day before he had made his wish. He was out for a walk with Mabel when they saw a cute dog on the street. They had asked the owner, an older woman, if they could pet it. She let them, but the dog snapped at Dipper's hand as he reached down. "Thank you!" Dipper said as he closed the book and kissed it; happy that he had found his answer. Then, he gravely remembered that they didn't have an answer for how his wish came true. Dipper grunted. "I suppose it's one step at a time at this point." He said to himself as he changed into his clothes and stuffed the book into his vest.

He opened the door to his room and found Wendy standing there, ready to knock on his door. "There you are." She said smiling at him. Dipper smiled back. "I just came to tell you that we'll be leaving in a few minutes to go fishing." She said as she got ready to walk away. However, something was clearly on her mind.

"Is something wrong?" Dipper asked Wendy, grabbing her hand and playing along with his wish.

"You know that I love you, right?" Wendy said almost with a sad look on her face as she let go of Dipper's hand.

Dipper was astonished that Wendy had just said that. He was barely able to mutter a "Yes."

She looked into Dipper's eyes. A passionate smile lit up her face. "Cool." She bent down and gave Dipper another kiss on the lips, this time adding her tongue into the mix.

Dipper stood there as she backed away. "I'll be downstairs if you need me." Wendy said before going downstairs and back into the kitchen. Mabel passed her on the stairs and looked at Dipper, who stood there with his jaw wide open.

"What's wrong Dipper?" Mabel asked walking up to Dipper and closing his jaw with her hand.

"I don't know. I think Wendy just french kissed me." Dipper said, his eyes wide open.

"Congrats Bro!" Mabel said before hugging Dipper.

Dipper pushed Mabel away and pulled out the journal and flipped to the page with the Speicherhund on it. "Remember when we went to pet that poodle that old lady had a few days ago?"

"Yeah. What about it?" Mabel asked, looking at the drawing of the creature in the book.

"A bite causes memory loss! Remember that it bit my hand? This explains almost everything." Dipper said, his smile quickly turning to a frown. "It still doesn't explain the wish coming true. I think Gideon might know something about it though. I think we should see him."

Mabel quickly put her arm around Dipper's shoulder and patted him on the back. "I think you need to relax and have some fun. Wendy is your girlfriend. It's not every day that this happens Dipper. Why can't we have fun for one more day? We can always see the little creep tomorrow."

Dipper wanted to bring up his visions of the black figures, but he couldn't bring himself to do so. "Fine. For one day only. I want you to write down that we need to see Gideon in your diary though." Mabel pulled out her diary and a pink pen and jotted it down on the next blank page.

The twins prepared for the fishing trip and got in the back seat of Stan's car. Wendy sat in the passenger seat in the front while Stan drove to the lake. Wendy was talking to Dipper for most of the trip to the lake, but Dipper droned out most of what she was saying as he looked out the open window of the car. They reached the lake and walked up to the dock where Stan's small boat was. "We're going to need a bigger boat." Dipper said, looking at Grunkle Stan.

'Don't worry. My dad said that we could use his boat." Wendy said as she led them over to her father's boat. One similar to Stan's with the exception of it being bigger and that it was painted a dark red. The four climbed into the boat with their fishing poles and Stan's box that was full of bait and tackle as Wendy untied the boat from the dock. Wendy steered the boat to the middle of the lake where they fished for most of the day. Wendy leaned next to Dipper until she felt an occasional tug on her pole and vigorously reeled a fish in.

The four of them fished throughout the rest of the day until the sun was setting on the lake. Wendy leaned next to Dipper as Stan drove the boat in towards the docks. "This was a fantastic day." She placed her hand on Dipper's chest, making this very uncomfortable for him. "I can't wait to get married." Dipper looked at Mabel who was now staring at Wendy with her braces showing and her mouth wide open.

Dipper slowly turned towards Wendy. "What?" Stan pulled up to the dock and began tying the boat to the poles. He didn't hear what Wendy said thanks to the roar of the boat's motor.

"I understand if you're having cold feet Dipper..." Wendy grabbed Dipper's hands and clasped them between her own. "But we were meant to be together forever. I want to grow old with you." Wendy got down on one knee and pulled out a small black box as she balanced herself on one of the seats in the boat. She opened it up and spoke with a twinkle in her eyes. "Will you marry me Dipper Pines?"

Mabel and Grunkle Stan couldn't help but to look on in awe as these events unfolded before their very eyes. Dipper screamed as he smacked the box right out of Wendy's hand. Mabel, Wendy and Stan watched as the box plopped in the water next to the boat. "Ahhhh." Dipper jumped off the boat, nearly falling into the water, before catching himself on the dock. He stumbled as he started to run before catching his balance and running into the woods nearby.

Stan looked at the box that was now sinking in the water. "I'm not getting that."

Mabel stood up and looked Wendy directly in the eye. Mabel gave her a death-glare and left to chase after Dipper. Wendy remained in the boat smiling to herself, almost obnoxiously, before saying. "He'll come around."

Mabel lost the sight of Dipper as his hat disappeared in the woods, covered by all of the brush. These woods were nothing like the magic one by the Mystery Shack. These woods had a darker, more ominous feel to them. It seemed like something scary was around every corner and the thick brush made it harder to see. Mabel continued running through the thick bushes, taking all of the thorns that came with it as they pricked into her sides causing her to wince. She stopped in a very small clearing surrounded by some weeping willows and plenty of bushes. She called out her brother's name. "Dipper!" There was nothing but silence in return. "Dipper! I'm scared!" She cried out, tears bubbling in her eyes.

Mabel turned around as she heard rustling behind the bush behind her. She walked up closer to the bush, moving inch by inch. Pulling back the bush she could see Dipper shaking on the ground as pale as a ghost with white foam frothing at his lips. Standing next to him was a tall and lanky black figure that had a hand out over Dipper's head. Mabel jumped over the bush and grabbed onto the figures leg as she began pounding her fists into its groin. The figure's skin was hard; almost scale like, similar to a snake. The figure kicked Mabel off its leg and she flung and hit the base of a tree.

The figure continued to provide pain for Dipper as Mabel lay on the ground, with a little blood coming out of her nose. She looked to her right and saw a large stick. Mabel mustered up enough strength to stand up and grab the stick. Charging at the creature she swung as hard as she could, hitting the evil being right in the leg. The figure fell and looked at Mabel before splitting into three more creatures. She glanced at Dipper through the corner of her eye. He was no longer shaking violently and the foam wasn't building up around his mouth. Mabel stepped back as the four creatures crept closer to her. "I'm warning you." Mabel said as she wiped the blood from her nose and clenched the stick as hard as she could. She began flailing the stick, trying to keep the creatures away, but one of them ripped it out of her hands and threw it behind them. Mabel was backed up against a tree, she cowered to the ground, closing her eyes and covering her head as she waited for her demise.

She was shaking, waiting for the figures to eat her, or slash her to pieces. Still cowering, she opened an eye up. Only the original figure stood there. It was observing Mabel through its black eyes. It turned around and walked over to Dipper, it slashed at his face as he screamed in pain. Mabel got back up and started hitting the creature's leg again. It slashed Mabel in the face as well, leaving Mabel there crying on the ground as she put her hand over her wound. She watched as the creature scurried away deeper into the forest. When Mabel was sure it was gone, she crawled over to Dipper who was lying on his stomach in the dirt. She rolled him over. Dipper had one big slash mark on his face right below his left eye.

Dipper looked up at his sister, who had tears running down her face. He grabbed her hand with the rest of the strength he had in his body and pulled it away from Mabel's face. She had four smaller scratches on her face that were streaked across the opposite side. "Why'd you follow me?" He muttered as he clenched her hand. He was still very pale but all the foam was gone.

"Why wouldn't I?" Mabel said, trying to smile despite her pain. "I know Wendy is acting weird... a little too..."

Dipper cut her off as his muttering became a light whisper. "Who's Wendy?" Dipper's eyes closed as he passed out in the forest, holding onto his sister's hands.

* * *

Dipper awoke to the sound of an infomercial on the television. "Water won't go down the drain? Are frogs in the way? Then get the frogger unclogger!"

Grunkle Stan walked into the room with a bag of ice and placed it on Dipper's head. "That must have been a nasty fall you and your sister took." The bag of ice hurt Dipper's head as Stan applied pressure to it.

Mabel walked into the room with a bandage across her cheek and a bag of ice on her head being applied by Soos. Dipper sat up so that Mabel could sit down next to him. Mabel plopped next to Dipper, taking the ice from Soos. "Thanks Soos."

"No problem Hambone. You got it covered Mr. Pines?" Soos asked, already halfway through the doorway.

"Yeah. Good night Soos. I'll see you tomorrow." Grunkle Stan said as he leaned back on the couch.

Soos left the Shack, leaving the three Pines together. "So what happened exactly?" Grunkle Stan said looking at the two twins.

Dipper shrugged at Mabel. "We were attacked by some sort of dark shadow." Mabel put on a serious look as she stared at Grunkle Stan.

"What kind of dark shadow?" Grunkle Stan said as he took off his fez and put it on his lap.

"One that gave us these slashes." Mabel pointed to the marks on their faces.

"Is she telling the truth kid?" Stan took the ice pack off Dipper's head and was now looking at him.

"I don't know. I can't remember anything." Dipper said as he rubbed his head. Stan put the ice pack back on.

Stan looked at Mabel and tried to make a decision. "This seems a little too far-fetched for me kid."

"Can you take us to see Gideon?" Mabel pleaded. "Pretty please!"

"Gideon? Why do you want to see that idiot?" Stan said as he got up from his seat and put his fez back on.

"It's important." Mabel tried pleading again. This time, she placed her ice pack on Dipper's lap and ran up to Grunkle Stan, holding onto his legs.

Stan shut off the television and shook his leg, but Mabel held on. "Fine. But I get to make fun of the punk before we go." Stan said as he looked at the clock; it was ten at night.

Mabel let go of Stan's leg and rushed upstairs to grab her diary. She rushed back down and they all piled into Stan's car and made their way to Gideon's house. Mabel allowed Dipper to read her last entry, so that he could be caught up to speed. Stan pulled in Gideon's driveway and got out of the car.

Mabel rang up to the door where Gideon answered the door. He was in pajamas that had little rubber ducks on a blue background. "Mabel Pines. What a delight to see you my dear." Gideon grabbed Mabel's hand and kissed it. Mabel pulled it away quickly and wiped it on her pants. Gideon looked up to see Stan and Dipper walking up to the door. "And I see you brought company." He said cheerfully before his tone turned nasty. "What a delight indeed."

Mabel barged her way into the house. "We need your help Gideon." She said.

Gideon looked at Mabel and then at Stan behind him. "What could lil' 'ol me do to help you?" He said cutely.

Buddy Gleefull walked to the door. "Stanford Pines! I wasn't expecting you to drop by. Come on in!" Bud pulled Stan and Dipper into his home as he shut the door and locked it behind him. "I just made a pot of coffee and would be happy if you'd have some with me. The kids can go play upstairs." Bud dragged Stan to the kitchen and sat him down as he poured to cups of coffee.

Gideon brought Dipper and Mabel up to his room where he shut the door behind him. The only light on in his room was a lamp in the corner. Gideon's happiness quickly disappeared as anger replaced it. "Why should I help you? Especially when you brought... him!" Gideon pointed to Dipper.

"Look kid. I don't..." Dipper started saying before being cut off.

"I will not help with anything until I get an apology..." Gideon raised the bar. "...and a kiss from Mabel."

Mabel looked at Gideon and shook her head. "Why am I so irresistible? And why are you such a creep?"

Dipper continued. "Hey punk." Gideon was taken aback by the sudden aggressiveness from Dipper. He walked closer and closer to Gideon, backing him into a corner. "I don't know who you are. But by the feeling I'm getting here and the way you're talking to us, I think you should be apologizing to us!" Dipper's finger was nearly touching Gideon's nose.

Dipper looked in his vest; he could still remember the day he found the third journal. He looked over at Gideon's desk and saw the second journal. Dipper dashed for it and snatched it, quickly opening it and browsing through it. Gideon chased after Dipper, but Mabel intervened and stepped in between the two boys.

"Don't touch my book." Gideon hissed. Dipper stepped closer to the lamp so he could read easier.

He flipped page after page but couldn't remember what he was searching for. "What am I looking for again?" Dipper said frustrated to Mabel.

"Black shadow thingy." Mabel said as she held back Gideon who was clawing after Dipper and struggling to overpower Mabel.

Dipper flipped and flipped, page after page but couldn't find anything. "It's not in here." He said, slamming the book shut and throwing the book at the wall. Mabel released Gideon and he chased after his book.

Gideon picked up his book and held it like a baby. "How dare you disrespect the power of these books! You can't even begin to fathom..." Gideon watched as Mabel and Dipper left Gideon's room while he was still ranting.

The twins walked to the kitchen where Grunkle Stan was in the midst of a conversation with Bud. "Then I said to him, your hair is on fire!" Grunkle Stan began laughing and banging the table as Buddy chuckled and drank coffee from his mug.

Dipper and Mabel walked up to Stan. "We're ready to go." Dipper said with a scowl on his face.

"Well, you're going to have to play with the little troll..." Grunkle Stan looked at Bud. "I mean, Gideon, a little longer. I'm in the middle of a story."

Bud stood up from the table. "It's quite alright Stanford. You take your kids home, the story can wait another day. It's late and they're probably tired. I know I am." Bud yawned and started to walk the kids to the door.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Stan asked, squinting towards Mr. Gleefull.

"It means I think that it's best if you leave my house." Bud said as he stared down Stan.

Grunkle Stan got up. "I see." He ran over to the cupboard and grabbed the canister of coffee beans as he ran out of the house, calling back to Buddy. "Thanks!"

Dipper and Mabel chased after him and hopped in the car as Stan sped off to the Shack. "Did you get what you needed?" Stan asked. Mabel and Dipper looked at each other in silence. "I'll take that as a no... At least it won't matter. Since you're leaving tomorrow."

"If only." Dipper said silently to himself.

Stan pulled up to the Mystery Shack. Wendy was standing there with a bouquet of flowers in her hand. Dipper got out of the car and walked right by her. "Wait... Dipper!" Wendy called out to him. "I want to marry you!"

Dipper stopped and turned to Wendy. A sad and tired look was on his face. "I don't know who you are. Sorry." Dipper walked inside. Mabel went up to Wendy and patted her on the back as she silently went inside with Stan, leaving Wendy outside alone.

The twins went up into their room where they got ready for bed, again. Dipper looked through the journal on his bed while Mabel jotted down notes in her diary. Dipper flipped to Bill Cipher and showed the page to Mabel. "Have we dealt with him before?" Mabel nodded. "Write down that we're going to summon him tomorrow."

"That's crazy talk Dipper." Mabel explained. "He's too powerful. We're lucky we beat him the first time."

"Do you have any better ideas? Because I don't!" Dipper snapped.

Mabel looked angrily at Dipper as she slammed her diary shut. "You know, sometimes I wish we weren't twins." Mabel got up from her bed and left the room, slamming the door shut. Dipper threw the book across the room as it hit the wall and one of the pages folded up. Dipper sulked on his bed as Mabel cried on the bed in the hidden room where Mabel and Dipper had switched bodies thanks to the electron carpet.

Eventually, the two fell asleep after being tired out from their weeping. As the night stirred on, the black figure appeared again as it climbed through the triangle-shaped window. This time, the figure split into eight different, yet similar beings. Four magically vanished from Dipper's room and re-appeared next to Mabel. They reached their hands out and placed it on each twin's forehead.

A white glow emanated from their hands as the twins eyes opened and became bright red. They floated off their beds before being let down slowly. Mabel's nose began to bleed, but she had it easy compared to Dipper. Not only were streaks of red flowing from each of Dipper's eyes and each of his nostrils, but he was violently shaking and threw up in his sleep. Dipper's body became stone cold at one point, before returning to a normal temperature. The figures removed their hands from the twins.

A flash of white light illuminated each room before fading away. The figures were gone.


	5. One Way Out

Dipper woke up on the floor. He looked over to Mabel's bed and around the room before panicking. He looked down at his shirt, a dry mix of yellow and red were stained on his shirt. Dipper felt below is eyes and wiped up dry blood just as Mabel came barging into the room with a cloth below her nose.

"Dipper! Are you okay?" Mabel asked as she ran up next to him and began wiping the blood off his face.

"I think so." Dipper looked at his reddened hands and then at Mabel.

He felt his spine tingle as he shivered. "Thanks for helping me and all..." Dipper stood up after Mabel finished wiping his face. "... But could you tell me where I am and who you are?"

Mabel punched Dipper in the arm. "Good one." She dropped the cloth on the floor and went into Dipper's dresser drawer to get a new shirt for him.

Mabel pulled out a green t-shirt and gave it to Dipper. "I'm serious. I don't know where I am." Dipper's face seemed emotionless.

Mabel sat down on her bed as Dipper watched her with his clean shirt in his hand. "I'm sorry about last night. This whole endless summer thing... it's getting to me. I wanted to keep summer going on, but I guess I was being selfish." Mabel looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry for snapping at you and being a jerk. We can summon Bill right now if you want." Mabel looked at her brother, expecting him to drop his act and come over and apologize and comfort him.

Instead, Dipper slowly took a step back. "What are you talking about? Endless summer? Bill?" Dipper's next sentence toyed and teased Mabel. "Who are you?" Dipper quickly ran out the door, in his fresh green shirt and the vest that was sitting on his bed. He ran down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Grunkle Stan was making eggs and bacon for breakfast. "Ahhh." Dipper screamed as he ran into the old man who was wearing nothing more than a muscle shirt and boxers.

"Come on, it's not like you haven't seen me wear this before." Stan said with a spatula in his hand. Mabel ran through the kitchen quickly after. "What's wrong with your brother?" Stan asked Mabel, but she continued running by.

Dipper screamed again and ran to the Mystery Shack gift shop where Soos was sweeping the ground with a broom. "Hey dude." Soos said to Dipper as he ran through the gift shop. "Could you grab me that glass of water?" Soos pointed to a glass that was sitting on the counter.

Dipper looked out Soos and let out another scream before opening the door and running outside towards the woods. Mabel followed behind him, "Soos, I need help!" She yelled as she chased him out the door.

However, Dipper was quickly stopped by Wendy who was walking up the road to the Mystery Shack. "Hey Dipper! I was looking all over for you." Dipper stopped running at the sight of this beautiful girl with long red hair. Wendy smiled dryly before frowning. "Why haven't you returned my calls!" She boomed.

Again, Dipper screamed took a sharp left and booked it into the magical forest. Mabel and Soos, who were behind him gave Wendy a glare. "Great job." She said aggravated before turning into the woods.

Soos panted and stood next to Wendy, bent over and breathing heavily. "Sup dude?" He said in between breaths.

Mabel continued chasing through the woods after Dipper. She didn't even know that she could run this much at one time. "Please stop Dipper!" She called out, half from exhaustion and half in tears. "Dipper... please." She said as she collapsed to the ground, out of breath.

Dipper kept running. He ran as far as his little legs could take him, leaving Mabel out of sight behind him. Dipper ran out of breath and stopped in a clearing by a small stream. He sat down on a log, out of breath. Dipper looked around at his surroundings. A chill ran down his spine as he looked at the small stream, the log he was sitting at, and the small space between the trees above that gave him a view of the blue sky.

Why did this place look so familiar to him? He couldn't remember ever being here before, let alone anything else. Dipper would have panicked again had it not been for the serenity of this clearing. The calmness around him kept him calm.

Dipper suddenly turned when he heard the rustling of bushes behind him. He cringed as he waited for Mabel to walk through the shrubbery, but the rustling stopped. Dipper waited what felt like two minutes for someone to walk through, but no one did. A cold wind blew in his direction as he shivered and rubbed his arms to protect himself against the cold. Dipper stood up and started backing up away from where the rustling had come from. He stepped backwards through the stream that had now frozen over. Dipper could feel himself bump into something as he backed up. He clenched his eyes shut as he turned around and took a peek.

He jumped backwards when he saw Mabel lying on her butt on the dirt. "Ow." She said as she stood up and brushed the dirt off herself. Dipper was ready to run away when Mabel held out her hand. In her small hand was a pink book that had a gray kitten on it. "Read it." Dipper took a step back. Mabel wasn't going to let him get away though, she took two steps towards him and shook the book harder. "Read it!" She shouted as tears formed in her eyes.

Dipper took a step forward and snatched the book cautiously away from Mabel. He ripped the small Velcro latch open and flipped to the last entry. Dipper read it silently to himself.

_August 30th (Last day of summer #3),_

_My oh my, where to begin? First, our wishes came true again! We have yet another last day of summer and Wendy is even closer with Dipper. I'm so happy for him! Well, I was in the morning. It appeared Dipper had a girlfriend, but Dipper couldn't remember anything that happened yesterday. Before we went fishing Dipper told me that he french kissed Wendy. I couldn't be prouder of my lil' twin bro. Dip then told me that he thinks the dog that bit him a few days ago is causing his memory loss. I wasn't sure if that was why, but I played it off and made him relax so we could enjoy the day. He wanted to see Gideon, but I hate that creep, so I tried my best to avoid that situation in the earlier part of the day and succeeded. _

_Then crazy things began to happen. Wendy asked Dipper to marry him! Dipper didn't take it well and ran off into the woods. i chased him and got lost, I was so scared. I saw Dipper shaking like crazy on the ground and attacked some tall black creature that was making him shake. We had this epic fight but I ended up with a few slashes underneath my eye, as did Dipper. I thought he was going to die, but I dragged him out of the woods and we got him home. Dipper started having memory problems, so we went to see Gideon. The search turned up empty and we made Gideon pretty mad, I guess it's good he'll forget. _

_When we returned home Dipper decided that we needed to summon Bill Cipher the next day. I was scared, so I told him it was a bad idea. Then we kinda had a verbal fight and I said some things I wish I could take back. Dipper's always been there for me, he's always helped me get up when I was down, he's always by my side. It wasn't right that I said that, I guess I'm just scared. I wish I had never made that first wish. _

There was a spot below the page where a tear had fallen and splashed on the paper. He looked at Mabel, there was a sadness in her eyes. "Let's summon this Bill Cipher and fix everything." Dipper said with a smile. Mabel grabbed the book out of Dipper's vest and opened the page to Bill Cipher's drawing.

Mabel stuck out her hand for Dipper to grab, but before he could do anything, the cold wind stopped. A black figure appeared in front of them. Mabel looked around for a weapon, but nothing was there. "Run!" She screamed, Dipper and Mabel turned to run away from the creature but found themselves trapped as the evil figure multiplied and surrounded the twins. They stepped closer and began making the circle that surrounded the twins smaller and smaller. "Quick, read the journal!" Mabel whispered as she held tightly onto Dipper.

Dipper held out the journal and began quickly chanting. "Triangulum, entangulum. Veneforis dominus ventium. Veneforis venetisarium." Dipper and Mabel saw everything around them turn gray. The figures stopped moving and looked around, their mouths open as they began whispering to each other in their native tongue.

Everything around the twins seemed to move in slow motion, then, Bill Cipher appeared in front of the twins but outside of the circle. "Well, that was quick." Bill said straightening his tie. The figures looked at Bill and started going after him, slowly but surely. "If you guys are really going to go after me, you should do it faster." Bill snapped his fingers and his hands became covered in a blue flame. He fired the flame at each of the shadows and hit them all directly, causing each one to vanish.

Dipper and Mabel sighed a breath of relief since that problem had been solved. Bill looked at the twins and floated up to them. "I was almost expecting the white haired kid again. What do you want Shooting Star, Pine Tree?"

Dipper looked at Mabel and shrugged. She was going to have to take this one. She started. "We need your help."

"Well you don't say? What's in it for me?" Bill said, getting right down to business. Mabel looked at Dipper, what could she offer Bill? Bill floated around them and stopped in front of Dipper. "I'll tell you what. There's nothing I need here, not yet at least. I'll help you two." Mabel jumped up and down gleefully. "One lies awake while the other sleeps. Where holograms and reality mix in dreams. One must leave with such a shameful fate. But don't get it wrong or there will be no more dates." Bill took off his top hat and lowered it to the kids before putting it back on. "Good luck! I'll be watching." Bill floated backwards before disappearing behind a flash of white light.

Dipper looked at Mabel he was as confused as she was. "You should probably write that down." He said to her. Mabel pulled out her journal and quickly wrote what Bill had said. "We should probably leave this place, before those things come back. I felt like I was going to pass out next to them." Mabel and Dipper trekked back through the woods in a hurry, trying to get to the Mystery Shack as fast as possible. Mabel told Dipper about all the adventures they had during the summer. Dipper could sense some familiarity with the stories Mabel told him, but he couldn't formally remember what happened.

They reached the Shack and rushed inside, closing and locking the gift shop door behind them. Soos was sweeping up the ground with a broom as the twins ran in. "Hey dudes? Why are you all sweaty and stuff?"

Dipper continued towards the bedroom while Mabel stopped to catch her breath. "We went for a run." Mabel replied before leaving Soos there with his broom.

Soos watched as Mabel ran out of the room. "Hmm." Soos said to himself before returning to the task at hand.

Dipper and Mabel reached their room without any further distractions. "This Bill guy sucks. He made zero sense!" Dipper said frantically before jumping on his bed and burying his head underneath his pillow.

Mabel looked through her diary, hoping for a note or some clue that could help them. But there was nothing that could. The quote Dipper had given her a couple of days ago was useless. They needed to decode Bill's message. Mabel tore out a blank page from her journal and wrote down Bill's message. "Dipper, we need to decode this ourselves. You're smart, so I need your help."

Dipper turned his body away from Mabel as he talked, his sound was muffled from the pillow being over his head. "What use am I? I can't remember anything."

"Dipper, I need you." Mabel pleaded from the floor. "Please try."

Dipper threw his pillow of his bed and sighed. "Ok... What's the first sentence."

Mabel read it aloud. "One lies awake while the other sleeps." She scratched her head. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Maybe something happens at night to one of us?" Dipper said unsure of what the sentence could mean. "What's the next one?" He asked.

"Where holograms and reality mix in dreams." She said, looking at Dipper for a quick response.

"Well, that's easy. Dreams seem real because it's based of reality. But a dream is a hologram because it's not actually happening. What's the next one?" He asked as he got on the floor next to Mabel and sat down.

Mabel read the next sentence. "One must leave with a shameful fate." Mabel thought for a second. "Does that mean one of us has to go?"

Dipper shrugged. "Maybe. Read the last sentence." He demanded.

"But don't get it wrong or there will be no more dates." Mabel said aloud, closing her diary and throwing it onto her bed.

"I guess that means the right person has to leave, otherwise something goes wrong with Wendy and I?" That was the only thing that made sense to Dipper. Dipper thought, but the more he thought, the more frustrated he became. Dipper threw his hands up in the air and jumped back up on his bed. Then, it came to him. "That's it!" He said bouncing up and down on his bed before realizing that he was jumping for joy at a grim conclusion.

"What is?" Mabel hopped up excitedly as she spun around in the air to face Dipper.

Dipper's expression became dark and weary. "You're not going to like what I have to say. Not to mention, I'm not one hundred certain about this theory." Mabel gave Dipper her full attention. "According to Bill's little poem. One of us is really sleeping."

"What? That's ridiculous!" Mabel said as she laughed off Dipper's theory.

Despite Mabel's laughing, Dipper didn't intend on not finishing what he had to say. "One of us is really sleeping. This is fake, it's all a dream. However, somehow, we're bound together with one of us actually being awake. That's that makes this dream feel so... life like. This is where the problem lies. We have to figure out which one of us is really asleep and that person has to kill themselves." Mabel gulped. "Only then will we be out of this wretched dream."

"And if we guess wrong and the wrong person kills themselves?" Mabel was shaking.

"Let's hope it doesn't come down to that." Dipper said with angst.

Mabel was in disbelief with Dipper's whole theory. "So you're telling me that these past few days never happened?" Dipper nodded. "You never kissed Wendy, we never went fishing three different times? Our wishes never came true?"

Dipper nodded again as Mabel began crying. "I'm scared. I don't want to die."

Dipper got up and comforted her. "We're not going to get this wrong. There's an easy way to figure out who's really dreaming. We just need Grunkle Stan."

* * *

Mabel and Dipper waited outside of the living room. Grunkle Stan was preparing the fishing poles just like he had done the past few days. "What's the plan again?" Mabel whispered.

Dipper explained his somewhat complicated plan to Mabel as best he could. "We both need to ask Grunkle Stan a question that the other twin doesn't know the answer to. That way, when he gets one wrong, we know the other person is dreaming because they don't know the answer."

"What?" Mabel asked, completely confused.

"Think of a question I don't know the answer to." Dipper said, annoyed.

Mabel giggled to herself. "So anything? Since you can't remember." Dipper put his hand over his eyes and shook his head.

The twins walked forward into the room. Grunkle Stan finished tying a knot on one of the lines and looked up. "Hey kids." He said tiredly.

Mabel was the first to ask her question. "Grunkle Stan, how many sweaters do I have?"

Grunkle Stan just stared at her. "I have no idea, twenty-one?" Mabel grinned.

"Grunkle Stan..." Dipper paused and looked at Mabel. He was going to take a huge risk with this. He knew there was no way Mabel would kill herself, so he needed to ask a question she knew the answer to but didn't think she knew. "... What song did I sing in the shower two weeks ago when Mabel accidentally went into the bathroom?" Dipper didn't remember singing in the shower three weeks ago, he didn't know if Mabel walked in on him or not, he just took a shot in the dark. Little did he know, that actually happened. His subconscious had actually remembered something and made it seem like he was just pulling the details out of nowhere.

Grunkle Stan responded quickly. "Easy. Baby is my number two. Mabel wouldn't shut up about it at all last week... why are you asking me all of these questions?" Dipper winced at Stan's answer. He had answered too quickly to have been wrong. Dipper's fate was inevitable and he knew it.

They walked out of the living room leaving Stan's question unanswered. Dipper's head was looking at the ground and Mabel's arm was around Dipper's shoulder as she patted him on the back. They went for the kitchen. Stan didn't keep a gun in the house, so the only option was the big butcher's knife that sat in one of the drawers. Dipper grabbed a rag and wrapped the knife up and Mabel and him traveled upstairs to their room.

"I can't watch you do this!" Mabel panicked, slapping the knife out of his hand. It landed with a thump on the hallway floor. "We don't even know if we can trust Bill!"

Dipper knew she was scared, but he was scared too. He wasn't sure he was right. For all he knew he could be committing suicide right now. "What other choice do we have?"

Dipper ran to the bathroom with the knife. Mabel reacted quickly and chased after him, but she was a little too late as Dipper slammed the bathroom door and locked it. Dipper barricaded himself up against the door even though it was locked. "Dipper, no!" Mabel screamed at the door. "Please don't do this!" She was banging at the door and jiggling the doorknob. "I can't live without you!" Her sobs were loud and could clearly be heard throughout the house.

Dipper looked at his reflection in the knife. He could see his sad face, but it came out slightly distorted thanks to the ridges on the side of the sharp knife.

Stan was running up the stairs after heard all of the commotion coming from Mabel. She had never seen the old man move so fast in her life. "What's going on?" He asked frantically. Worry was settling into his eyes.

Mabel banged onto the door again as the pounds became harder and harder. There was a moment of silence between pounds. Dipper placed his hand on the door. Almost whispering he looked down with saddened eyes and a faint smile. "I love you."

Dipper plunged the knife into his chest, pushing it in further as he gritted his teeth together in pain. He screamed in agony as his knees collapsed. So this is what death felt like? It was almost calming. He could hear Mabel crying after he screamed in pain again. Stan kicked the door. "Dipper?" He yelled. Stan kicked the door again, busting it open. Dipper was lying on the ground, a pool of red blood was next to him and his green shirt had been soaked with red. Mabel sobbed at the sight. Dipper could hear the noises around him becoming harder and harder to hear. He could barely feel Stan go over to pick him up and hold him in his arms. Everything began to become dark around him and the last thing he saw was Mabel crying on the wooden floor with a black figure standing behind her.


	6. One More Time

Mabel was crying on the ground as she crawled her way over to Stan who was holding Dipper. She smacked Dipper's face with her hand. "Wake up Dipper!" She screamed. Stan tried to hold her back with his other hand, but she squirmed her way past Stan's outstretched hand and slapped Dipper again. "Please wake up!" She screamed again, her voice was hoarse.

There was a creak on the floorboards outside of the bathroom. Mabel turned around and could make out the black figure as a tear fell down her cheek. "This is all your fault!" Mabel screamed, pointing at the black figure that was standing outside of the bathroom. Stan looked at her in horror as he watched her point outside of the door at thin air. He watched as Mabel stood up and ran into the hallway, flailing her arms and screaming as she stopped and began punching at the air.

"You killed my brother!" She screamed as she punched the scaly creature. The shadow didn't punch back, but stood there and took amusement in watching her trying to injure him. Then, the creature opened it's mouth. This one had three rows of sharp, pointy teeth and it's tongue was severed just ever so slightly down the middle. It reached out its hand over Mabel and she felt herself lift off the ground. The hallway around Mabel became gray as she stared the creature right in the eye and watched the color around her drip to the floor. "Put me down!" She shouted, but the shadow wasn't going to listen.

Suddenly, Mabel gazed at the evil being in front of her. The unthinkable was happening, the creature was fading away. It's limbs began to flash as Mabel watched everything around her begin to change. She fell to the ground with an oomph as the creature screeched loudly. Mabel covered her ears as she watched the creature's torso begin to flash between black and white. It's limbs were already gone.

Mabel looked back at where Stan had been. Both him and Dipper were gone and the bathroom had vanished. She turned back to the creature and it had vanished as well. All that surrounded Mabel was whiteness. She appeared to be in an all white room. The ceiling was white, as were the walls, which seemed to be miles away. Mabel looked down at the white floor below her. She wasn't sure what was going on. "Dipper! Wake up!" She screamed again. Her words echoed off the walls and seemed to keep echoing for eternity. She looked down at her legs, they were flashing just like the creature's had before her. She clenched her eyes shut, closed her fists and screamed one final time. "Dipper!"

Mabel opened her eyes and found herself lying in her bed. She could see her posters of boy bands, kittens and rainbows on the wall to her left. Above her was the same old moldy wooden ceiling. The dark nighttime sky was outside the window. She let out a sigh of relief. "It's good to be back, eh Dipper?" She smiled as she turned to look over towards Dipper's bed, but something was still wrong. Dipper wasn't in his bed, but the sheets had been pulled down. "Dipper?" She said quietly as she sat up. She scanned the room, he was nowhere in sight. Mabel quickly got out of her bed with her blue nightgown that she was wearing. She walked up slowly to the door, there was scratching at the other side. Mabel searched silently around the room for a weapon. The scratching persisted as she grabbed the alarm clock that was on her desk and stealthily moved back over to the door. She raised the alarm clock in her right arm as she turned the knob and threw the door open. She sighed as she bent down to pet Waddles, placing the alarm clock on the ground next to the doorway. "You scared me Waddles." She said, scratching behind the pig's ear.

Mabel looked up to the sound of running water in the bathroom. She moved Waddles into their room and pointed her finger at the barnyard animal. "Stay here Waddles." Mabel silently closed the door and crept down the hallway to the bathroom. The running water stopped as she heard the squeak of the towel hanger. Mabel flung open the door and saw Dipper tying a large towel around his chest. "Dipper! You're okay!" Mabel ran up and hugged her brother as tears of joy ran down her face. "I thought you had died." She said, stepping back and punching Dipper in the arm. Mabel wiped the tears from her face as she smiled.

Dipper, however, was not smiling. There was a frightened look on his face and a gaze of pain his eyes. "Mabel, I need you to get Grunkle Stan right now." He said worriedly.

"Why? We won!" Mabel said, unsure of why Dipper was acting so strange and scared. "You don't have to..." Dipper untied the towl and dropped it to show his bare chest. Running across his body,there were at least twenty scratch marks that were the size of a crayon. There was also a gaping slit in Dipper's chest that was bleeding. Dipper quickly wrapped the towel around his body tightly and began walking very slowly towards the door.

Mabel had a look of shock and horror written on her face. "I need to get to a hospital." Dipper said frantically as he walked out of the bathroom. Mabel ran up to him and helped him limp down the stairs to Stan's room. Dipper put his hand on Mabel's shoulder. "I don't have the book, so Wendy must have it." Dipper croaked. "I need you to get it and bring it to the hospital with her. Those things are still here." Dipper looked around before going into Grunkle Stan's room. "Grunkle Stan!" He yelled.

Mabel booked it to the gift shop and out the door of the Mystery Shack. She ran as fast as her legs could take her. Mabel sped down the path to the Mystery Shack and headed towards Wendy's house. The wind flapped her nightgown and her hair as she ran on the asphalt barefoot. Mabel reached Wendy's house and began pounding on the door, despite it being four in the morning. "Wendy, Wendy!" She shouted.

The front porch light turned on and Wendy answered the door. Her hair was messy, she was wearing a navy blue t-shirt and some red and gray tartan style flannel pants. "Mabel, quiet. It's four in the morning." Wendy said as she yawned and rubbed her eyes.

"Dipper's in the hospital! Grab the book and come on." Mabel shouted as she grabbed Wendy's arm and began pulling on it. Wendy closed the front door behind her.

"What?" Wendy said as she yanked her arm away from Mabel.

"I can explain on the way there. Come on!" She shouted again tugging at Wendy's shirt.

Wendy pushed Mabel's hand away again. "Okay, let me get the book." Wendy opened the door, rushed upstairs and grabbed the book from her room before returning a few seconds later. "I'm guessing they went to Gravity Falls General?" She said as she quickly strapped on her helmet. She handed Mabel a spare helmet.

"I think so..." Mabel said as she put on her helmet with the book in her hand.

Just then, Stan's car pulled in front of Wendy's house and Stan yelled from out the window. "Quick, get in!" He shouted frantically. Wendy looked at Mabel and dropped her bike. They rushed towards the car and slid into the back seat. Stan began speeding toward the hospital as Mabel was shutting the door. Mabel flew back in her seat as the car door slammed shut.

Dipper was in the front seat moaning. "Do you have the journal?" He sounded weak.

"Yeah." Mabel replied quickly as she flipped open the book.

"Good." Dipper held out his hand aimlessly out towards the back seat. "Give it here." Dipper coughed. Mabel handed Dipper the journal and watched as he flipped through it with one hand. "Gotcha." He mumbled as he turned to the page where the SpeicherHund had been and found a picture of the tall, dark picture. "I knew I had never seen the dog before when I flipped through." He said to Mabel as he continued looking at the book. "They must have implanted the idea in my brain."

"What's going on? Is this another one of those creatures?" A concerned Wendy asked.

Mabel nodded her head as Dipper read the description silently to himself. "The shadows do have a weakness." Dipper coughed, this time blood came out of his mouth.

Stan glanced over and saw the blood. "We're almost there, hold on Dipper." Stan yelled as he floored it. The car was at its top speed. The hospital was only a mile way now.

"What's their weakness?" Mabel asked Dipper. Leaning forward, Mabel clenched Dipper's hand.

"Water. They can't swim." Dipper laughed before stopping because of the pain it was causing him.

"I don't think dragging them to a lake or splashing them with dish water is going to work. They'll see it coming from a mile away!" Mabel complained to Dipper. "How are we going to get them?"

Dipper used all of the strength left in his body to sit up and turn towards Wendy. He groaned as he moved. He turned his head and looked at Wendy, he looked her right in the eye. Wendy nodded, she knew what needed to be done.

Stan sped into the Emergency Room parking lot, nearly sending four more people back into the hospital, and parked the car next to the doors. He ran out of the car and carried Dipper into the Emergency Room. Wendy and Mabel followed him inside. "Doc, I need him operated on stat!" Stan said rushing up to someone in a green gown.

Dipper's eyes were closing as he started to lose consciousness. "Oh, I'm not a doctor. I just play one on T.V." It was actually Stan's favorite television actor James Rivera.

"I don't have time for this!" Stan pushed past Mr. Rivera, causing James to fall on the ground.

"I'll get you for this!" James Rivera yelled as he got up and slowly backed out of the hospital. Mabel and Wendy looked at each other and shrugged.

Stan found an actual doctor, who took Dipper and placed him on a gurney. "He pressed a button on his pager that would send the surgeons to the operating room.

"What happened here?" The doctor asked as they ran and pushed Dipper through the hallways of the hospital to the operating room.

"I'm not sure." Stan said as he tried to keep pace with the younger doctor. "He came to me in the middle of the night and he has at least fifteen scratches on his body and this big slit on his stomach. It was like someone stabbed him with a knife."

Dipper's eyes were now closed as the doctor handed the gurney to a nurse outside of the operating. "We'll do our best to help him." The doctor said calmly as he put his hand on Stan's back. The doctor then rushed into the operating room to help.

Stan turned to the two girls. "I'm going to kill the shadows if it's the last thing I do." He said with vengeance. Just then, Soos walks by them with a large garbage can on wheels. "Soos!" Stan called out.

Soos turned around and a smile lit up his face. "Hey dudes, what are you doing here?" He asked as he wheeled the garbage can back to them.

"What are you doing here?" Stan said, looking around the hospital.

"I work here part-time as a janitor. It's good money, but they don't have many open shifts, so I couldn't switch it to full-time if I wanted to." Soos leaned on his janitorial cart. "Money never sleeps, right Mr. Pines?"

Stan looked like he was going to cry. "I've taught you well son." Stan said as he put an arm around Soos' shoulder. "Dipper's in the OR." Stan said pointing over towards the operating room.

"Dude, what happened? Is he gonna be like, ok?" Soos asked with a concerned look on his face.

"I don't know." Stan said as he looked down at the ground. He looked up at Soos. "But I need you to keep an eye on Mabel. Wendy and I have some... unfinished business."

"Of course dude. I'll watch 'em like a hawk!" Soos saluted Stan and walked up to Mabel.

Mabel was the first and only person to complain. "What? I want to go fight the monsters though!" She pouted.

"No!" Stan sternly replied. He rolled up his sleeves. "I'm not letting you get hurt either. Let's go Wendy." Stan and Wendy ran in the opposite direction of the operating room and left the hospital. Leaving Mabel in the hands of Soos by the operating room where Dipper was being held.

* * *

"Smith, I need the scalpel. If I don't find out what's clogging his vein from this cut, we're going to lose him." The doctor that brought Dipper into the OR said frantically as he held out his hand.

Smith handed him the scalpel and the doc began making an incision above where Dipper's knife wound was. He lifted up the flap he had created. There, in Dipper's heart was a small but sharp nail. One of the shadow's nails had ripped out and poked ever so slightly into Dipper's pulmonary artery.

One of the nurses in the room began to talk loudly. "Doc, his blood pressure is dropping."

"Shit." The doctor cursed as he assessed their current situation. "I can't pull it out or he'll lose more blood. I have to close the wound somehow."

Smith chimed in. "What about fire?"

"That's propest..." The nurse that was pumping oxygen through Dipper's lungs was quickly cut off.

"I think that's our only option. Nurse Jackie, get me the torch from Operating Room number six." The doctor order one of his nurses to put a clamp on the incision so he would have a clear shot with the small torch. "We're only going to have one shot with this." He explained to his co-workers. "Smith, I need you to pull out that weird shaped nail..." The doctor examined the nail some more. "What the hell is that from?"

Nurse Jackie came back into the room with the torch. The doctor shook is head. "Whatever... Smith, pull it out. And as soon as you do so, I'll start cauterizing the wound." The doctor leaned over Dipper. "Good luck kid."

Smith leaned over the cut with tweezers. He needed to carefully pull it out. The doctor was there with the torch, trying to steady is hand, waiting for Smith to pull out the nail. "On three." Smith said, glancing up at the doc.

The doc nodded to show that he understood. "One... two... three..." Smith gently pulled out the nail as the doctor began cauterizing the small hole that had been made from the nail. The doctor stopped. The hole was gone, the price was a small dent in Dipper's pulmonary artery.

The doctor looked up at nurse Jackie. "Blood pressure is stabilizing..." She sighed. "Great work guys."

The doctor snapped off his gloves. "Stitch him up. I have some good news to share." The doctor walked out of the room and made his way over to Mabel, who was sitting on Soos' lap, with her head buried into Soos' chest.

Soos tapped Mabel on the shoulder as she looked up at the doctor and wiped a tear from her eye. "Excuse me, are you his sister?" The doctor said gently as he pointed in the direction of the room.

Mabel nodded her head. The doctor bent down so he would be eye level with Mabel. "You guys are twins, right?" Mabel nodded again, the anticipation was killing her.

"Well, I want you to know that he's going to be alright." Mabel hugged the doctor as he returned the hug back to her. "I have a twin as well, her name is Ariel."

"That's a pretty name." Mabel said as she released the doctor from her grip and looked at him with a wide smile.

Suddenly, a voice from over the P.A. system came on. "Dr. Alex Hirsch, you're needed in Operating Room three." A loud click signaled the end of the message.

"Duty calls." Alex said as he patted Mabel's head and left to do his job.

* * *

Stan and Wendy reached the path where Wendy had taken Dipper through the forest. Stan parked the car on the side of the road as they both got out. "What am I supposed to do again?" Wendy asked Stan as they entered the forest.

"Do what the book says, and I'll take care of the rest. Now where is this place?" Stan asked as they trudged through some mud.

"It's in that direction some ways." Wendy said as she pointed through the woods in the direction of her cavern. "Ugh, I thought the convenience store was crazy, but now this!"

"Convenience store? What are you talking about?" Stan wondered as they continued through the woods.

"One night, Dipper, Mabel, some of my friends and myself went to the abandoned Dusk 2 Dawn. And these crazy ghosts started terrorizing us. But Dipper... He saved us. Even if it meant doing some ridiculous lamb dance in front of me." Wendy paused. "I've eternal respect for that kid since that day. Even if he is trying to impress me."

"He has a good heart." Stan said before looking at Wendy. "Maybe the boy is tougher than he looks. It takes guts to do that." The two reached the clearing where the waterfall was. "You know what to do?" Stan asked, looking at Wendy with determination in his face.

"I think so." Wendy walked over to the cliff and sat with her head staring straight ahead at the forest. She closed her eyes and began to wish. Wendy wished that she could see her mother, one last time.

Moments later, Wendy felt herself levitating off the ground. She opened her eyes and screamed at the horrific creature in front of her. Stan darted out of the woods and tackled to the shadow to the ground. He punched the shadow in the face. The scaly creature opened its mouth and flashed his sharp teeth at Stan as it hissed. It kicked Stan off and he rolled backwards on the ground. "Ow." Stan said in pain, his older body couldn't take much.

Wendy, who had fallen back on the ground, ran and jumped on the creature's back as it stood up. She put her arms around its neck and began to choke it. Stan got up slowly, using his eight ball cane. He couldn't help but stare at the red-headed girl, who was riding on the creature's back, holding its neck as tight as possible. "A little help?" Wendy yelled.

Stan went back over to the creature and punched it in the face. The shadow began to back up, closer and closer to the edge of the cliff with each punch Stan made on the shadow. Even though it was a little taller than Stan, he wound up one more punch and smiled. "Left hook!" He screamed out as he punched the scaly creature in the side of the head. Knocking the shadow backwards. Wendy leaped off its back and to the side. They watched as the evil being fell off the cliff, screaming in its tongue. It plopped in the water and sunk immediately.

Wendy sprawled out on her back and gazed up into the stars. "If only my wish could have come true." She whispered to herself as she caught her breath. Stan walked over to Wendy and helped her up.

They began to walk back towards the woods. "I may have internal bleeding." Stan joked.

Then, out of nowhere, James Rivera hopped out of the forest and stood in their path. "Time for payback old man." He said with a maniacal laugh.

Stan was ready to punch the actor in the face. But Wendy held out her arm and stopped him from moving forward. "I'll take this one." She said confidently.

She walked up to Mr. Rivera and looked him in the eye. James began to laugh hysterically as he looked at Wendy, who was still in her pajamas. "What are you going to do? Text me to death?" He laughed hysterically as he kissed his bulging bicep muscles. "You can't touch these babies." he said to her as he flexed both of his arms.

Wendy lifted her leg up and kicked James Rivera in the crown jewels. James fell down on his knees, holding the area where Wendy had just kicked. Then, Wendy punched him in the face, he fell down on the ground, unconscious.

Stan stared at Wendy in amazement. Wendy turned back to Stan. "I took self-defense classes at the YMCA last summer." Wendy began to walk towards the woods before turning around to Stan again. "You coming?"

Stan walked past his former favorite actor before saying something to Wendy. "Remind me to give you a raise." Stan and Wendy trekked back through the woods to the car and then drove back to the hospital.

They found Soos and Mabel happily sitting in the waiting room. "How is he?" Stan asked as he sat down. "Ow, my back."

"He's going to be alright dude." Soos said happily.

Smith came out and told Mabel, Stan, Wendy and Soos that Dipper was now in his own room at the hospital and they could go visit him. Stan looked at the clock, it was seven in the morning and the sun was just beginning to rise.

The four walked into Dipper's room quietly, where they found him awake, watching them creep in. "Hey guys." He croaked with a smile.

Mabel ran up and jumped onto the bed, hugging her brother; nearly knocking over the I.V. stand in the process. "You're okay!" She said happily.

Dipper coughed. "Can't... breathe."

Mabel got down from the bed and rubbed Dipper's chest. "Sorry."

Dipper looked at Stan and Wendy, half expecting them to start telling him that they defeated the being, but he had to ask. "Did you beat the shadow."

Stan nodded his head. "We sure did." Stan wasn't going to start getting emotional with other people in the room. "I'll be right back, I need to hit the john." Stan rushed out of the room and went to the bathroom to pull himself together.

Wendy walked up to Dipper's hospital bed. "Are you sure it's gone?" Dipper asked Wendy with a smile.

"One hundred and ten percent. It'll be at the bottom of the lake in no time." Wendy smiled and pet Dipper's head. She turned to Mabel to include her in the conversation. "Looks like you two will get to stay another day after all." The four of them began to laugh before having a group hug.

"I guess some wishes do come true." Mabel said with a smile as she looked out the window over Wendy's shoulder at the rising sun.

The water flowed down the waterfall and churned the water below it. Bubbles surfaced near the rock's where Wendy and Dipper had spent their last hours of the summer together. The body of the black scaled creature resurfaced. It sat there in silence as a white light flashed around it. It was gone.

* * *

_**A happy yet mysterious ending to my first completed FanFic! Sounds like the Gravity Falls I've come to love. **__**I hope you guys enjoyed reading this one as much as I loved writing it. The longer chapter format is definitely more organized than my shorter chapter stories. I'll probably have another longer chapter story out soon. **_Be sure to check out my other stories for now and Thanks for reading! -GrapplingHook!


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